TV and Radio

Two Open University/BBC co-produced programmes have won prestigious awards presented by Royal Television Society (RTS). The Secret History of Our Streets won the history category and Protecting Our Children won the documentary category.

The Secret History of Our Streets a series on BBC2 in May last year, returned to six archetypal London streets ranked by Charles Booth in the 1886 Survey of London to discover how their fortunes have changed over the last 125 years. The lead academic consultant for the series and writer of the accompanying OU guide was Lecturer in Politics Dr Georgina Blakeley.

The three-part documentary Protecting Our Children, appeared on BBC2 in January 2012 and followed the work of Bristol’s child protection teams and the challenging role social workers face and how changes over the last 10 years have impacted on them and their duty to safeguard children.

Dr Barry Cooper and Dr Lucy Rai, both Senior Lecturers in Social Work in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, were consultants on the series and worked with the production team for over a year giving advice on social work practice and policy development. In addition, Debbie Stringer, Senior Lecturer in Law provided support as part of the module team.
The Royal Television Society is Britain’s leading forum for television and related media. Held annually, the RTS Programme Awards aim to recognise the work of exceptional actors, presenters, writers and production teams, as well as celebrating the programmes themselves.

Find out more: 

• Study social work with the OU
• Free social work learning resources
• Secret streets interactive
• Royal Television Society
   

Posted: 20 March 2013

 

The Challenger, a factual drama about acclaimed scientist Richard Feynman’s search for truth in the wake of the NASA Challenger disaster, broadcasts on BBC2 on Monday 18 March at 9pm.

When Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight on the morning of 28 January 1986, it represented one of the most shocking events in the history of American spaceflight. A Presidential Commission was immediately convened to explore what had gone wrong, but with the vast complexity of the space shuttle and so many vested interests involved in the investigation, discovering the truth was an almost impossible challenge.

The drama, which stars William Hurt in the lead role, focuses on the Feynman’s involvement with the commission as it explores what went wrong – and it is the failure of management processes and communication that Feynman uncovers that is of particular interest to the MCT faculty. In support of this co-production, Ivan Horrocks has developed an interactive quiz that allows you to test your reactions to a number of difficult scenarios in the world of technology management.

What would you do? Could you lead an ethical investigation? Test your reactions to the kind of ethical, moral and political dilemmas that the Challenger disaster exposes with our online quiz.

More information on the programme (Please note: this URL may not be live until the day of transmission, and may only contain minimum content and resources if viewed prior to broadcast.)

 

 

A new eight-part series called Why Poverty? starts next week, delving into topics such as birth, infant mortality, education.

Why Poverty? starts on Monday 19 November at 10.35pm on BBC1 and the sesven following episodes will continue on BBC4. The series aims to create a global conversation about poverty through a wide range of though- provoking and engaging films about a subject that concerns the whole world.
 

Episode one, Four Born Every Second,  puts the spotlight on birth and infant mortality around the world. 130 million babies are born each year, but the circumstances – and place – of their birth will determine how they live, and for how long.

The following seven episodes, which explore different aspects of poverty ranging from inequality to feeding the world to what does education get you, will transmit on BBC4 as follows – and can also be viewed on YouTube after broadcast.

BBC4
Sunday 25 November at 9pm
Monday 26 November at 10pm
Tuesday 27 November at 10pm
Weds 28 November at 10.30pm
Monday 3 November at 10pm
Tuesday 4 November, 10.20pm
Thurs 6 December at 11pm

Find out more:

Explore the resources and follow the steps on OpenLearn to start making a difference: www.open.edu/openlearn/whypoverty