TV ShowReturning Series

Open Space

1983

1 season

37 episodes

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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Cast

Jon Alpert

Margo MacDonald

Geoffrey Robertson

Peter Tatchell

Tony Benn

Julie Walters

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Keiko Tsuno

Graham Horder

Hugh Ross

Janette Legge

Billy Connolly

Seasons

Ep 1
1.Power in Your Hands
05-07-1983
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 televi...
Ep 2
2.Time and Other Thieves
12-07-1983
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 i...
Ep 3
3.Christine's Children
19-07-1983
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...
Ep 4
4.Chingari - The Spark
26-07-1983
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 increasin...
Ep 5
5.National Health Service: 1: the Consultant's Tale
02-08-1983
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 af...
Ep 6
6.National Health Service: 2: Mission of Mersey
09-08-1983
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...
Ep 7
7.National Health Service: 3: On Whose Authority?
16-08-1983
Peter Pan fights for life! -as the people of North Kensington oppose plans to close the much-loved children's ward at their local hospital. Unhappily cast as Captain Hook and his c...
Ep 8
8.A Day Off the Buses
23-08-1983
Holiday time in Open Space this week. The drivers and clippies of Putney Bus Garage step off their buses on to the somewhat faster route of the world's largest corkscrew rollercoas...
Ep 9
9.Ducking the Rocks - A Social Worker's Life
01-09-1983
Lots of people think they could do social work, even more think that they know what social workers do -well you've seen Juliet Bravo handed confidential files from her social worke...
Ep 10
10.Downtown Video
08-09-1983
Cameraman, director, interviewer Jon Alpert is the only 'Independent' whose work appears regularly - and unedited - on American network television, on NBC's prestigious Today progr...
Ep 11
11.Health Care: Your Money or Your Life
08-09-1983
A documentary by Jon Alpert and Kelko Tsuno for New York's Downtown Community Television Centre. A heart-attack victim is rushed into the emergency room with no pulse. Miraculously...
Ep 12
12.A Healthy Future?
15-09-1983
Following public reaction to three Open Space films about the NHS, tonight's programme presents a major debate about the future of the Health Service. The participants all have a v...
Ep 13
13.A Midsummer Night’s Belfast
22-09-1983
A local community arts group echo the events staged by the Victorians in Belfast’s Botanical Gardens, resulting in Midsummer magic. Live music, balloon ascents and elaborate theatr...
Ep 14
14.Who's Looking After the Kids?
29-09-1983
A 3- and a 4-year-old introduce a child's-eye view of life. A few of us are lucky -we go to good nurseries But it's not such a happy story for the rest. Every day millions of pare...
Ep 15
15.For Sale - 9,000 People
06-10-1983
Ep 16
16.The Badgers of Gwent
13-10-1983
Ep 17
17.Earls Court '...a time, a place, a state of mind?'
20-10-1983
Ep 18
18.Peter Tatchell and the Battle for Bermondsey
27-10-1983
Ep 19
19.The Need to Know
03-11-1983
Ep 20
20.Officers No More
10-11-1983
Ep 21
21.Falkland Sound to Plymouth Sound
17-11-1983
Ep 22
22.Singing Songs of Whales and Things
24-11-1983
Ep 23
23.The People's Palace
01-12-1983
Ep 24
24.Episode 24
08-12-1983
New mining technology.
Ep 25
25.Freedom Fighter Lives Forever
05-01-1984
Ep 26
26.The State We're In
12-01-1984
Ep 27
27.Invisible Women
18-01-1984
Ep 28
28.One of Us
08-02-1984
Ep 29
29.The Women of Durham Jail
15-02-1984
Ep 30
30.Here to Stay
22-02-1984
Ep 31
31.On the Road
29-02-1984
Ep 32
32.Rockin' the Botha
07-03-1984
Ep 33
33.Come On You Spurs
14-03-1984
Follows the supporters of Tottenham Hotspur Association Football Club, hearing about their passions, and also both sides of the story around hooliganism.
Ep 34
34.Fair Shares?
21-03-1984
Ep 35
35.Only Fools and Sportsmen...
28-03-1984
Ep 36
36.It's my Life, Anyway...
03-04-1984
Ep 37
37.A Picture of Health
11-04-1984

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