Between the launch of the block in 1993 and the launch of the channel in 1999, Nick Jr UK's branding largely mirrored that of the American feed and used the American version's idents. The UK input (branded as either
Banana Sandwich or
Nick Jr in the schedules) was presented by
Dave Benson Phillips between 1994 and 1996, where Dave was joined by two puppet mascots called Bugsy and Herbie on location around England before the two puppet characters eventually went onto present the block by themselves for the whole of 1996, still on location for a while whilst sometimes presenting in a colourful animated studio, joined by some guest presenters occasionally until they were replaced by Face. Face ran from February 1997 until September 2005 and was dubbed into British English by
David Holt. Bugsy and Herbie went on to have their own series of mini-episodes aired on Nick Jr. during the advert breaks in the late 1990s until early 2000s, by which point the puppets were removed completely. Upon the channel's launch in 1999, it launched its own package featuring live-action children playing in a brightly painted studio or holding posters on which clips of programmes appeared. From the channel's launch, Face's hosting job would be shared by the Early Worms, the titular characters of the
Early Worms show, Arnie and Barnie. Due to the abundance of British-produced content along with the channel's status as the first dedicated for preschoolers in the UK, the channel positioned itself in a special British image in its early years. Starting in September 2000, just before signing off for the night, it would air a bedtime segment and song hosted by
Kevin Duala (host of the British version of ''
Blue's Clues), titled Bedtime Business''. In 2001, the channel transitioned into using Nick Jr. US's ident package, first with up-next bumpers, and combinations of the 1999 idents with idents from the US. On 4 February 2002, Nick Jr. fully rebrand into the new package, which had a specific jingle and song played in idents. These idents usually consisted of children playing around or dancing, this time in the outdoors, and the logo appeared (either being
mushrooms, the stereotypical parent and child,
squirrels,
dogs,
whales,
chickens,
butterflies,
elephants or
flowers) in a white circle on a plain brightly-coloured background at the end. On some occasions, they would broadcast atmospheric idents which included babies. Sometimes these idents would air on most of the ad breaks, or sometimes they appeared in split-screen graphics and next bumpers. Promo endboards were added as well.
Dora the Explorer and
The Hoobs premiered on the same day of the rebrand. Before signing off at 7 p.m. (8 p.m. after fall 2002), it would air the
Bedtime Business segment, followed by a short closedown bumper featuring some characters from Nick Jr. shows and an announcement telling viewers to resume watching at 6 a.m., before cutting to a static yellow screen with the characters and the broadcast times until 6 a.m. the next morning. In fall 2002, they updated their DOG to a much cleaner, organised and less opaque state. Just before Noggin signed on, an ident showing the logo as two
caterpillars played during the last advertisement break at 8 p.m. Then in 2005, this was supplemented with a sting ident of the Nick Jr logo (as two
snails) and the Noggin logo spining around. After Noggin signed off, it would play an ident of a UFO flying away, and cut to a dark blue version of the 2002 signoff screen, just telling viewers to resume watching at 6 a.m. In July 2004, some in-vision morning presenters were introduced to the network. Neal Wright (Zak) and Jennifer Johnston (Jen) presented and hosted this block simply called "The Garden." Alongside them, there was a puppet plant called Bud, and a blue ball of light/firefly named Izzy. Also, around this period in 2004, Nick Jr. started to use the 2D American animal idents originally introduced there in 2003, which were eventually removed at some point. At the same time, Nick Jr. began airing the new look of Face to their channel introduced in America the year prior, usually referred to as "Modern Face". He was still voiced by
David Holt. Nick Jr. made the unusual decision to not replace the original Face, leaving Modern Face and Face's old look broadcasting simultaneously. In the spring of 2005, a new animated presenter, Piper O'Possum, appeared on the channel alongside Face at the time, O'Possum presented the UK input of Nick Jr. until its rebrand on 30 April 2010. She was redubbed by Alex Kelly and lasted longer on the UK feed than in the US by three years. Between this time and 4 September 2005, a mix of Old Face, Modern Face, Piper, The Garden, The Early Worms and The Baby Bumpers hosted the channel. During the significant rebrand of 5 September 2005, Face was removed entirely, The Garden remained but only until October of the same year, and the Early Worms continued to present in the morning. Although Piper became the main presenter for most of the day, in the late afternoons the bumpers with O'Possum were not shown for the rest of the remaining hours and her segments of announcing shows were usually replaced with normal next bumpers. In addition, Noggin was renamed to Nick Jr. Classics and the ident package that had been used since 2002 was removed, as the international versions of Nick Jr. launched a 2D-3D animated pop-up-book-style ident package, with two animals (a parent and a child) forming the Nick Jr. logo, very similar to the package of
Nick Jr. on CBS from 2004 to 2006. This package was designed by
Mic Graves and
Ben Bocquelet (who would be known for
The Amazing World of Gumball) at British animation studio
Studio AKA. At night, special idents were played, which either consisted of existing daytime-setting bumpers converted into a nightly backdrop, or night-specific bumpers that only played during that time. At the end of regular Nick Jr. programmes on both channels, they played the new bedtime song, "Jimmer Jammers", showed a sign-off ident telling viewers to return at 6 a.m., and transitioned to Nick Jr. Classics. After Nick Jr Classics, they would switch to a night loop of the same ident or different idents playing over again. Idents on Nick Jr. 2 had the number "2" appear at the end of each ident in the scenery. On its launch on 25 September 2006, Nick Jr. on TMF began using the idents. The package would be used on both Nick Jr. channels until 29 April 2010. During the time when Nick Jr, Nick Jr 2. and Nick Jr. on TMF co-existed, the three cross-promoted their programmes under the slogan "Three ways to play". Between 2008 and 2014, the schedule after 6 p.m. was rebranded as "Nick Jr. Bedtime". A new bedtime look and song ("Land of Dreams") was commissioned and played alongside the already existing night version of the 2005 idents and its song ("Jimmer Jammers"). The Early Worms returned as hosts for the strand (and eventually the last hosts of any Nick Jr. feed internationally). During the strand, special celebrity guests would accompany Arnie and Barnie in reading bedtime stories, akin to those of
CBeebies. On 30 April 2010, Nick Jr. rebranded to a variant of the
American look and
French look designed in-house. They used the animated American idents along with their own which included still shots of children in assorted places or doing activities. Like the American rebrand, it was based on the old arts-and-crafts style and music of Noggin, and was used as the basis for the rebrands of the mainland European Nick Jr. feeds.
Moose and Zee from the American
Nick Jr. Channel and the
Noggin block on Viva (which closed as part of the rebrand) became hosts the main Nick Jr. channel, with Moose's voice being dubbed by
David Holt. Similar to the US version of Nick Jr., Moose and Zee presented links between programmes and especially around up-next bumpers, although due to the need for advertisement space, they appeared irregularly and not at night, where they would be replaced by regular next bumpers. Nick Jr. Classics was rebranded and then discontinued in July 2010. When Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. 2 signed off, they switched to an off-air slide, and then played a night loop of the same ident repeating,. On 2 August 2010, when the main Nick Jr. began broadcasting 24/7, the Bedtime block continued, airing to 8 p.m. When Nick Jr. 2 expanded its broadcast hours, it broadcast the segment from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. However, on 7 January 2013, the channel rebranded again to the then-current American look, which removed Moose and Zee and the arts-and-craft style branding in favour of a 3D CGI world appearing in bumpers and promos where clips of the characters appeared. The Bedtime strand was also revamped under this branding. There were also slight variations between the colour schemes on Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. 2, with the latter opting for a colder colour palette. However, some of the 2010 idents, especially the Christmas ones, were retained until December 2014, albeit with the new Nick Jr. endcap (of the logo changing colour multiple times). While it was initially the same as the United States version, on 3 November 2014, the main channel was rebranded by Blue Zoo, and the Bedtime strand was removed from both channels, leaving the channel without any hosts for the first time in 19 years. This new branding used CGI and 3D shapes like the previous one and used standard colour schemes for different parts of the day. Nick Jr. Too, however, retained the old style until 2019. On 18 February 2019, Nick Jr. adopted the branding used in the United States starting in the previous year, featuring live-action children running in a 3D CGI space, often holding bubble wands in which clips of shows appear out of. Bumpers also show these children interacting with the Nick Jr. characters in live-action environments.
TMF/Viva block A version of the US Noggin branding was used for the Noggin block on TMF/Viva. It was similar from the American version but was smaller. It was hosted by Moose A. Moose and Zee D. Bird from the American version, with Moose dubbed by David Holt.
Slogans • Grow, Learn and Play (1 September 1993 – 1995) • Just for me! (1 September 1999 – 3 February 2002) • Join in!/Join-in TV/Join the Fun! (4 February 2002 – 29 April 2010) • It's the shows that make Nick Jr. (2010) • Every day's an adventure (7 January 2013 – 17 February 2019) ==Other related services==