The Open University

Are big businesses creating a modern dystopia? New BBC series investigates

26 September 2017

Whether it’s using PayPal instead of cash, checking your iPhone constantly for emails, or using a Fitbit to track your steps, technologies have pervaded our daily lives in the last few decades and completely changed how we live. But is it all for the good? A new BBC series, co-produced by The Open University, investigates […]

The Detectives: Murder on the Streets

19 September 2017

The chilling BBC/OU Co-production The Detectives: Murder on the Streets returns for a second series this autumn, following Manchester’s homicide detectives as they work to unravel complex murder cases. With unparalleled and intimate access, this four-part series follows the Manchester team over the course of a year as they try to crack complex cases in real time. Open University […]

New series explores the dark reality behind the disruption economy

2 August 2017

New two-part television series Secrets of Silicon Valley investigates the reality behind Silicon Valley’s endless faith in its power to change the world for the better. The so-called ‘Tech Gods’ believe progress is powered by unleashing technology to tear up the world as it is and create a new one – a process they call “disruption”. Presented […]

Prejudice & Pride: The People’s History of LGBTQ Britain

24 July 2017

A new BBC/Open University co-production will take a look back at the 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality – from the perspective of the people who lived through them. Prejudice & Pride: The People’s History of LGBTQ Britain begins on Thursday 27 July, on BBC Four, at 9pm. In 1967 the Sexual Offences […]

Robots – friend or foe? New OU/BBC series explores the rise of the robots

19 July 2017

Are robots our companions or could they become our greatest rivals? In a special two-part series, electronics engineer, Professor Danielle George, and evolutionary biologist, Dr Ben Garrod, explore everything from driverless cars, to a robot destined to set up home for us on Mars. An obsession with robots in human form Produced in partnership with […]

OU supports year-long BBC science and technology season

12 June 2017

The OU is supporting a year-long season of science and technology programmes that will bring science to life for millions. Launched under the banner Tomorrow’s World, the radio and TV programmes and online hub, will take science out of the lab and into peoples’ homes, addressing how science is changing peoples’ lives, reshaping the world, and […]

Antidote to crime dramas hits TV this week – The Met: Policing London

23 May 2017

Across London, twenty four hours a day, the Metropolitan (Met) Police is dealing with the demands and dilemmas of policing a city of eight and a half million people. Following on from the highly successful first series, a second series of The Met: Policing London, which begins on BBC One, 9pm on 24 May, lifts the […]

Doctor Who takes an ethical stance towards alien life – so why isn’t he vegan?

12 April 2017

Since the Doctor Who series was rebooted in 2005 the television show has consistently presented the Doctor as a moral leader, a key element of which is his respectful relationship with other species. The Doctor expresses admiration and wonder for others, even when they threaten him or his human companions. Christopher Eccleston, who played the […]

Understanding today’s Teenagers: Child of Our Time returns to BBC One

28 March 2017

Child of Our Time: BBC ONE, 9pm, 3rd & 4th April Since the year 2000, The Open University and the BBC have followed the lives of 25 children born across the UK, to find out what makes us who we are. Now, the hugely popular series Child of Our Time returns to the BBC on […]

OU/BBC production allows viewers to Meet the Lords

27 February 2017

A peek into the biggest parliamentary body outside China, the Chamber of Lords, is in store in a new two-part documentary co-produced by The Open University and the BBC. Meet The Lords on BBC2 from Monday 27th February will help to explain what the 800 plus peers do on a day to day basis. Production company […]

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