TV and Radio

Matthew Sweet returns to BBC Radio 4 with 'The Philosopher's Arms', a very special pub where moral dilemmas, philosophical ideas and the real world meet for a chat and a drink. More

In another OU-BBC collaboration Matthew discovers how our lives connect to some of the trickiest philosophical problems ever conceived. Free will, exploitation, sex, sexism, blame and shame are just some of the topics to be mulled over in this latest series.

Check the broadcast times on the BBC Radio 4 website.

The series starts on Tuesday, 30 July 2013.

Posted on 25 July 2013.

Airport Live is a live series revealing the untold story of how Heathrow Airport is run. It is one of BBC2’s most ambitious live broadcasts and a co-production with the Open University. It was on BBC Two between 17 and 20 June 2013.

It was presented by Dan Snow, Dallas Campbell, Anita Rani and Kate Humble who went airside at Heathrow, the world’s busiest international hub airport.

More than 200,000 passengers travel through Heathrow each day. Everything and everyone is on a deadline. In the words of Prof. Simon Bell, who acted as the series academic adviser, Heathrow is one of 'terminal cities', with a population of 270 thousand people, consisting of passengers and staff.

The presenters and their audience had unprecedented behind the scenes access allowing them to see this daily relay race first hand.

We could watch air traffic control in action and witness the extraordinary science and logistics behind every flight.

This four part series was commissioned by the Open Media Unit at the Open University to support the MCT Faculty’s PG Technology Management, PG Environmental Management and UG Environmental Management and Technologies programme areas,

If you are interested in the concept of airports as cities, you can watch Simon Bell's video entitled "Terminal Cities" on OU OpenLearn website.

For more information about the programmes, visit the BBC's Airport Live pages

Posted 25 June 2013

A new OU/BBC series captures a day in the life of one of the world's largest publicly-funded health services.

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day is an epic eight-part observational documentary starting Tuesday 26 March at 9pm on BBC2.

It tells the stories of a single 24-hour period in the NHS from a multitude of perspectives, following a diverse range of staff, and patients. 

The OU team working on the series say it is of particular interest to Health and Social Care students, as it takes a broad view of health care delivery that moves beyond the ‘typical’ doctor-led focus in acute care to explore the relationships between service users and providers.

OU academic advising on the series are Dr Carol Komaromy and Dr Jonathan Leach. 

Explore further
Check out the OpenLearn series page online interactive feature  telling the story of the changing nature of health care from before the birth of the NHS to the present day.

There is a booklet associated with the series, Working to Save Lives, which gives a personal view of day-to-day life as an NHS healthcare professional. For a free copy, call 0845 271 0015 or go to the OpenLearn page.

More information

• Health and social care courses and qualifications at the OU

 

Posted 25 March 2013