Meeting Reflections

The BBC & The OU ~ David & Collette Currie

Our December meeting, although Mulled Wine and mince pies were on offer, was unfortunately not as well attended as normally; but, as it was held on a cold wet evening, this was hardly surprising.

Nonetheless, our speakers, David Currie and his wife Collette gave us an interesting insight into the relationship between the Open University and the BBC back in the days when the OU came into existence as the first Distance Learning Higher Education establishment. This brainchild of Jennie Lee, supported by the Labour Government of the time, was sited in Milton Keynes, but to begin with the BBC staff were based at Alexandra Palace in north London.

David started by saying that this was partnership of two organisations with different cultures and different structures and that he was offering ‘a history, not necessarily the history’. When the OU and the BBC’s relationship was first discussed, the then BBC Director-General, Hugh Carleton Greene agreed to it providing that there was ‘no cost to the licence payer’ and the BBC/OU Production Centre came into being in 1969.

Ally Pally is 50 miles from Milton Keynes, so this was only temporary until studios could be built on the site at Walton Hall, where the university campus was being constructed. The aim was to produce about 150 programmes (both TV and radio) by May 1970 when the first students would arrive. Course teams producing the material were made up of both academics and BBC staff; the theory being that it was easier to turn academics into broadcasters than vice versa!

To begin with, programmes were broadcast to fit in with student availability. There was also cross publicity with the Open University being mentioned on other programmes, such as The Archers and Birds of a Feather. However, with advent of VCRs, broadcast times changed. They moved to early mornings and were recorded for later watching.

The studios at Walton Hall were not finished until 1981 and the large BBC staff moved up to Milton Keynes. However, there were discrepancies between the BBC staff and the OU academics. They were on different terms and conditions of work. As an example, the BBC bar was run as a club and was only available to members, whereas the OU bars were run as normal licensed premises where anyone could enter. So, at first, there was little interaction and the BBC staff were rather insular. However, this did change over the years.

In due course, technological and political changes caused problems for the BBC. It became more business orientated, and the OU developed its own Audio-Visual Unit for non-transmittable programmes. 400 BBC staff moved up to Milton Keynes, but by 2011 there were only 4 staff left. Nowadays, it is all about co-productions: most of us will have watched programmes such as Coast, Blue Planet and Jane Austen –the Rise of a Genius, even if we were not aware of the BBC/OU branding.

For someone like me who worked solely on the University side, David and Collette’s view was certainly refreshing!

Sue Harland