Concept and creative process
Designer Bernard Heyes recalls the origin of the idea behind the title sequence he created for ‘Abroad in Britain’. “When I was a child, I had a pair of shoes with a pattern of animal tracks in the rubber soles and a compass in the heel. I think they were called Pathfinders and I never forgot them. So when I met Jonathan Meades I proposed the idea of having the series logo on the sole of his footwear, as this was a series about a man investigating on foot strange aspects of Great Britain. Each shoe or boot (six in all, one pair for each programme) would be relevant to the story, each with the logo on the sole e.g. a pair of Wellingtons with the series logo and a map of the UK. He liked the idea and so when the sequence was shot in studio, the camera followed Jonathan across the stage, framed for just head and shoulders, accompanied only by the sound of his Wellies squelching. It was only when he sat down, and the camera pulled back as he put his feet on the table, that we saw the programme title in close-up. It occurred to me afterwards that it should really say a ‘B-Road in Britain’, as all of the journeys were off the beaten track!” The title sequence won the 1991 Royal Television Society Graphic Design Award.