Concept and creative process
Designer Paul D’Auria, working in collaboration with Mike McGee at Framestore, produced a series of eight different openers for 'The Ben Elton Show', all of which were spoofs based on the current BBC balloon idents. In addition, he pirated the BBC One onscreen logo and seamlessly replaced it in vision by means of a neat animation to read 'The Ben Elton Show'. In the fifth Ident, the balloon flying over the Forth Rail Bridge near Edinburgh, meets a lane closure sign, which quickly causes a jam of other similar balloons, all jostling for position as their flight path narrows from three lanes to one.