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Open Space

  • 1983 – 1984
  • Returning Series
  • 1 season

Open Space was a programme produced by the BBC's Community Programme Unit. It was an evolution of the earlier Open Door series of programmes allowing minority points of view to make a television programme about issues of concern to them. The programmes were transmitted on BBC 2 in a mid-evening slot and would attract audiences between 500,000 and 1,500,000. In a typical year there would be two or three groups of up to eight Open Space programmes each usually half an hour long. A producer, an assistant and a budget of up to £25,000 would be allocated to each programme.

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Latest: Season 1 · 1983

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  1. E1. Power in Your Hands

    Jul 5, 1983

    In Liverpool today you can hardly turn a corner without ending up in yet another film report on the city's decline. Why, then, are so many Liverpudlians still frustrated by television's inability to recognise their real needs? Julie Walters , no stranger to life on Merseyside, returns to show what happened when those same people - from Croxteth, from. Bootle, from Liverpool 8 - were given the power to make programmes that said exactly what they wanted them to say...

  2. E2. Time and Other Thieves

    Jul 12, 1983

    The A5 special unit inside Holloway is the only therapeutic wing for women in the whole British prison system. Evidence is coming to light that some authorities would like to see it closed down. Bernadette Shannon was there for more than a year and on her release wanted to make a film about it. Community Programmes got in touch with the Home Office, the Home Office got in touch with the Governor. The Governor said no....

  3. E3. Christine's Children

    Jul 19, 1983

    Three years ago Christine Ridg well and her two young daughters were paid a rare visit by her ex-husband. Although Christine had been granted custody of the girls, he snatched them and took them to his new home in Italy. She tells of her long and harrowing fight for her children. Her case is not unique: right now at least 500 children, snatched from Britain, are still outside the country, outside our laws.

  4. E4. Chingari - The Spark

    Jul 26, 1983

    The recently ended 15-week strike by Asian textile workers at Aire Valley Yarns in West Yorkshire was hardly reported outside Bradford. Yet today, against a background of increasing racial hostility, this Asian community often faces the grim choice of working in sweat shop conditions, or not working at all. This programme made by the Strikers Support Committee demonstrates the growing spirit of resistance within the Asian community.

  5. E5. National Health Service: 1: the Consultant's Tale

    Aug 2, 1983

    Old people now occupy half the country's hospital beds. They are mostly dependent on the comprehensive,care of the NHS. Dr Peter Fisher is the kind of hospital doctor who looks after them. He works at Banbury's Horton Hospital - the sort of local general hospital we all rely Oh. But Dr Fisher and some of his consultant colleagues feel that the NHS is now in real danger from Government cuts and privatisation. A week in his working life explains why we should np longer take him for granted... Made in co-operation with the NHS Consultants Association

  6. E6. National Health Service: 2: Mission of Mersey

    Aug 9, 1983

    Music and movement in a doctor s waiting room? Local girls accosting you on the street to ask your views on health? Your doctor sending a social worker round to help sort out your bad housing? That's what happens in Liverpool at Princes Park Health Centre where doctors and nurses are tackling the root causes of bad health head-on. Made in co-operation with the PRINCES PARK HEALTH CENTRE

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