Written and Compiled by Matt Williams
Logo Pictures by Eric S., Bob Fish, V of Doom and Others
Editions by mr3urious, Bob Fish and V of Doom
Video captures courtesy by Bob Fish, Eric S., Mobilene, dsslave2, Shadeed A. Kelly and ILoveClassicTV


Background: The Incorporated Television Company (ITC) was a British television distribution company founded by television mogul Lew Grade in 1954 as the distribution unit of ATV (Associated TeleVision), one of the ITV franchises; it later branched out into TV series and feature film production. All of the ITC library, with certain exceptions (the controversial movie The Evil That Men Do (1984) is currently held by Sony Pictures Entertainment), is now owned by Granada International, a subsidiary of ITV plc.


1st Logo
(1956-1959)

Nicknames: "Early Diamonds", "Vertical Diamonds", "an ITC release"

Logo: On a gray background, the letters "ITC" each appear in 3 rounded diamond shapes vertically, connected with a line in the middle. The word "AN" appears above it and "RELEASE" appears beneath it. In other cases, it's superimposed.

FX: None; this logo was static.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct on TV. Most common on U.S. syndication prints of the first Lassie TV series, retitled Jeff's Collie (1954-1957).

Scare Factor: Low; this logo is mostly boring.



2nd Logo
(1959-1973)

Nickname: "The Compass"

Logo: On a gray background, a compass appears. It zooms up really close, and then "flips" to reveal a black diamond-like shape. A map of the world is wiped into the diamond from left to right as a white outline appears. The diamond's interior once again turns black as it zooms out as the background fades to black. When it reaches the top, a line is drawn through the middle as an "I" appears in the middle as well. Two more diamonds appear below the "I" diamond, reading "T" and "C", and appearing as the line "connects" them. The word "presents" appears below.

Variants:

• Sometimes "Distribution" replaces "presents," and sometimes, there is no text under the logo.
• There was a variant that has "Distributed by" above the logo in 1961.
• In the color version of the logo, the background is red, and turns to green during the map part, the compass is silver, and the map's continents on the opening variant is blue and the closing variant is green.
• Certain programs will have an in-credit logo that appears with "AN" to the left of the ITC logo and "WORLD WIDE DISTRIBUTION" either to the right such as Gerry Anderson's UFO or directly under it.

FX: The compass, the map appearing, lots of animation in this logo.

Cheesy Factor: It appears kind of rough in some spots (i.e., where the letters appear)

Music/Sounds: A bombastic brass score.

Availability: Most likely extinct, as it hasn't been seen anywhere in ages. It might appear on some ITC shows from the period, most notably The Saint and many of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation shows. It has turned up as a hidden Easter Egg on the British DVD release of The Persuaders! (1972-73).

Scare Factor: High; not seen widely in America if all, but the music would be likely to set off some people. None for the in-credit logo. However, it got werse in the next logo...



3rd Logo
(1973-1986)
Nicknames: "Rainbow Top", "Rainbow Diamond Top", "Spinning Diamonds of Doom", "Egg Beater (of Doom)"

Logo: On a dark blue space background, three diamonds appear, red, green, and blue respectively, "interlocked" within each other and spinning around like a top. From the center of the screen, a white ITC logo, designed much like last time but now turned slightly upward, zooms out and quickly moves to the left side, as the word "ENTERTAINMENT" appears alongside. At the end of the logo, the ITC logo fades out to make room for the word "Presents".

Variants:

• When introduced in 1973, the ITC logo (see fourth screen capture above) zoomed into the center of the screen after which either the word "PRESENTS" or "DISTRIBUTION" popped up under it before the sequence fades out. It was replaced with the more familiar version by 1977.
• Earlier versions have the words ITC Presents and no ENTERTAINMENT.

• On "Space: 1999," a version of the animated logo is seen at the end of the program, with "FROM" to the left of the ITC logo, and no "Presents."
• On all other ITC programs of the era, a still logo appears in the show's end credits.
• The second version of this logo and the still in-credit counterpart have either no byline, an ATV byline, or an ACC [Associated Communications Corporation] byline.
• This was routinely plastered over the Compass logo on newer prints of older ITC series (when Sci-Fi Channel reran Space: 1999 a decade ago, the second version [with and without the ATV byline] or the 1989 Golden Top logo was plastered over the original 1973 ITC Presents logo on all episodes except the show's finale, The Dorcons.)
• There is an extremely rare version with the ITC logo in gold with "PRESENTS" appearing below.
• An in-credit version exists on Return of Swamp Thing (1989) where the ITC logo appears with ENTERTAINMENT GROUP under it (stacked, of course).

FX: The spinning diamond thingie, the zooming out of ITC.

Cheesy Factor: The zoom-out is rough, and the diamond thing is really hard to decipher a meaning from.

Music/Sounds: The same as the previous logo.

Availability: Uncertain. The ITC library was, at the time this was first compiled, in the hands of Carlton Television, a company not known for preserving logos or even other corporate identities (it renamed two of its UK Television Stations, Central [the former ATV] and Westcountry under the Carlton name several years ago; the names of those stations were reinstated after Carlton merged with Granada in 2003), and some shows which had the logo have been updated with the third ITC logo or other company logos (for instance, The Muppet Show, originally an ITC/ATV-Jim Henson co-production, has had Henson logos plastered over the in-credit ITC logo in recent years). The in-credit version is usually left alone (see below for more information).

Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant:

• Nightmare, probably about as scary as you can get without causing fatal injury. This logo, even though it is not talked about as much as the other well-known scary logos (such as the S From Hell and V Of Doom), is probably one of the scariest logos ever made, thanks to "in-your-face" animation, a dark mood, and that evil MUSIC!.
• None for the in-credit variant.

4th Logo
(1980)

Nickname: "Still Diamond Top"

Logo: Against a green background, we see "FROM" in a small font. Next to it is the famillar ITC logo that has been turned slightly upward, and next to that we see "ENTERTAINMENT". The byline "(c) I.T.C. ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED (year in Roman numerals)" is seen below.

FX/Cheesy Factor: None; its a still logo.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Probably extinct.

Scare Factor: None; this is a boring logo.



5th Logo
(1986-1997)
Nicknames: "Golden Top", "Golden Diamonds", "Golden Diamond Top"

Logo: On a black background, we see three gold interlocked diamonds, the Logo 2 ITC diamonds but with no letters in them, spinning around. As they spin around, the letters "ITC", in gold, slide out from the right of it one-by-one, and then shine as the diamonds stop spinning.

Variants:

• The opening variant uses the byline "Presents", being used to open all ITC's movie productions/releases.
• The closing variant of this logo is bylineless.
  

• There is a variation of the logo that appears at the end of some CBS Theatrical Films releases when they are shown on television. In it, the logo is sped up, the three notes accompanying the ITC letters sliding out are not heard, the letters do not shine, there is no shimmering sound heard, "Entertainment Group" appears under "ITC" once the diamonds stop spinning, and a different "THUD!" sound is heard at the end.
• Another version has a byline reading "A PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Company" (in white), which is preserved on the DVD of The Boys from Brazil.
• On the 1996-98 USA Network series The Big Easy, the ITC Entertainment Group version is seen sped up (after the Grosso-Jacobon Productions logo) and cuts away to the PolyGram Filmed Entertainment logo (joined in progress; the final parrt of that logo is seen).
• On some VHS's, the animation is sped up, and "Home Video" appears underneath. The "THUD!" sound is heard as different in comparison to the TV counterfart.
• Sometimes it is superimposed on ending credits.

FX: The spinning diamond and sliding letters; pretty good animation.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic bass sounder followed by a three-note synth tune that corresponds to the sliding out of the letters, a shimmering sound accompanying the letters shining, and a "THUD!" synth sound.

Availability: Can be seen on a number of movies on the Starz/Encore movie channels and the Showtime networks, and usually plasters the ITC Film Distributors Ltd. logo, and can also be seen on the animated movie The Last Unicorn and the DVD of The Boys from Brazil; however, some ITC-produced movies have been showing up on video under the Granada International name as of late, so this logo may vanish soon...

Scare Factor: Low; the thud sound may be foreboding, but this is much mellower than the previous logos.