0:00:02 > 0:00:06The '60s - a time of change.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09# You will not be able to stay home, brother... #
0:00:09 > 0:00:14But in the corner of Britain's living rooms, another sort of revolution was underway...
0:00:14 > 0:00:18- Aggregation in the slime mould... - Let's look at some examples...
0:00:18 > 0:00:22..one led by really quiet men and women in tank-tops,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26armed with bits of cardboard and some massive equations.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Their clarion call...
0:00:30 > 0:00:32THEY SING THE OPEN UNIVERSITY THEME
0:00:42 > 0:00:47The Open University is 40 years old, and this is its story.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50- It had never been done before. - It was all so crude.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Bizarrely, it featured Darth Vader in a sort of cut-down leotard with a whip.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Let's summarise the conditions for acceptability.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01From a bold experiment that no one seemed to want...
0:01:01 > 0:01:03You can't get a degree by watching TV.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Couldn't bear the idea that the public should be able to be educated.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10..To the largest university in Europe.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Who created it and why?
0:01:12 > 0:01:16It's much more than a tale of kipper ties and post-pub TV.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19It's an old joke. It's not funny any more. We don't do that.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Here I am, sitting with a pen. In my life previously, I'd be sitting with a gun.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28For God's sake. I deserved a degree. That's what I felt.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34In four decades, the OU has taught over 2 million people.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36- And I'm one of them.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Feeding in this information.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Here's my input parameter, parameter S.
0:01:41 > 0:01:42CLEARS THROAT
0:01:44 > 0:01:46DOES VOCAL WARM-UP
0:01:50 > 0:01:55'I don't think I'd be doing Othello if I hadn't done the Open University.'
0:01:55 > 0:01:58No, Iago, I'll see before I doubt. When I doubt, prove.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02And on the proof, there is no more but this. Away at once with love or jealousy!
0:02:02 > 0:02:04'I'd never have come near doing'
0:02:04 > 0:02:07a classical theatre piece like this
0:02:07 > 0:02:09because I just wouldn't have been equipped.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13I had this weird chip on my shoulder about education for quite a long time.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19Everybody I knew in the business had a degree, had been to Oxbridge or a red-brick university. And I thought,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22"I feel like there's something missing in my life."
0:02:22 > 0:02:25I left school when I was 16 with seven CSEs.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27I don't even know what they are.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30I think they're akin to a chocolate fire-guard.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I didn't have any qualifications, really.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35I went to work at British Federal Welders.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Six months in, I was asked to go on New Faces.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42I got through it and my life changed.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48In 1998, I got an honorary degree from Warwick University.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52I'm sitting there with this bit of Warwick honorary thing and it's lovely.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57But all these people are getting up who have clearly been working for three years who go, "Yes!"
0:02:57 > 0:03:00And their family are in the audience going, "Yes!"
0:03:00 > 0:03:03There's Asians and Jamaicans and Africans and women
0:03:03 > 0:03:06and people in wheelchairs getting up and going, "Woo-hoo!"
0:03:06 > 0:03:10I thought, "I want one of those degrees. I don't want this one."
0:03:13 > 0:03:16It took me six years to get it.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Six years of not watching telly after EastEnders
0:03:19 > 0:03:23or been able to read a book without filling it with sticky notes.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Basically, the average OU student doesn't get out much.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32I've promised my husband that I won't actually do any more OU for at least a year.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Back to having a life back.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38That is the biggest thing. I've had no life for four years.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44200,000 students, three weeks of graduations,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48the OU educates on an industrial scale.
0:03:51 > 0:03:5640 years ago, though, the idea of a university open to anyone,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59even without qualifications, was revolutionary.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02And it very nearly didn't happen at all.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12Ah, the '60s. This is what it was all about, wasn't it? The breakdown of old social barriers,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16hippies, festivals, student sit-ins. Although,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19if you actually weren't a student, things were not quite so groovy.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22The vast majority of kids left school at 15.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Girls like me didn't go to university.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28People from where I lived in north London
0:04:28 > 0:04:31didn't go to university. What is the point?
0:04:31 > 0:04:36In 1960, only a privileged 4% of the population went on to university.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39And most of them were chaps.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44And another thing we've got to do in the field of higher education is to put an end to snobbery.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47- But that was about to change. - APPLAUSE
0:04:47 > 0:04:49The Britain that is going to be forged
0:04:49 > 0:04:52in the white heat of this revolution
0:04:52 > 0:04:54will be no place for restrictive practices...
0:04:54 > 0:04:58Harold made a speech at the '63 conference, much misunderstood.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02What he actually said was, "We shall all be burned up in the white heat."
0:05:02 > 0:05:06i.e. there will be mass unemployment unless we plan the economy.
0:05:06 > 0:05:07SCHOOL BELL RINGS
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Part of that planning would mean an opening up of higher education.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Polytechnics, new universities.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17Britain needed graduates.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22Unfortunately for some, this was going to be all too late.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25A lot of very bright people were frustrated
0:05:25 > 0:05:29that they hadn't had the chance to go to university.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32But they were married, had mortgages, couldn't go to college
0:05:32 > 0:05:35and, in any case, there weren't places for them.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38I'd like to...
0:05:38 > 0:05:40study what the intellectuals study.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42There were evening classes, of course.
0:05:42 > 0:05:48Groups like the Workers' Educational Association had helped bring higher education out of the universities.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50But they had limitations.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52They couldn't reach everyone.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59There was something, however, that could.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05By the early '60s, 14 million households had welcomed a new member of the family - television.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Thank you very much. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13Welcome to BBC Two's game of words and wit, Call My Bluff.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Television isn't only a way of watching plays and documentaries and sport and so on.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22It is an information channel
0:06:22 > 0:06:28and thinking of it for the purpose of education was an imaginative idea.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33An idea with an unlikely origin.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36The Russians were winning the space race, and some of their engineers
0:06:36 > 0:06:41had received a university education without attending a university.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45This got the attention of the Labour Party sage called Michael Young.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48It was Michael Young who came up with the idea.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52It was his visit to the Soviet Union in the 1950s
0:06:52 > 0:06:56where he saw what they were doing with radio broadcasting
0:06:56 > 0:07:02to reach very remote communities who needed "continuing professional development", as we now call it.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07That's where Michael Young got the idea and fed it to Harold Wilson.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Harold had been doing a bit of travelling as well.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17In the land of the TV dinner, he had come across an experimental TV college.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21And it was on a family holiday that his son saw these ideas come together.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25He had been very excited by certain educational experiments
0:07:25 > 0:07:30that were taking place through the Encyclopaedia Britannica in Chicago.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33I remember being in the Isles of Scilly -
0:07:33 > 0:07:36I was still a student in those days -
0:07:36 > 0:07:39we were at the Isles of Scilly on Easter Day
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and between church and lunch, he suddenly decided
0:07:42 > 0:07:45to map out the whole idea of this university of the air.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49It's designed to provide an opportunity for those who, for one reason or another,
0:07:49 > 0:07:55have not been able to take advantages of higher education now to do so.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59It was reported on by only one newspaper - it was largely ignored.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04And it certainly wasn't part of the Labour Party manifesto for the election in 1964.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Nobody seemed terribly interested in Wilson's big idea.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14Once in power, he started planning his new university.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16And indifference turn to hostility.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22Certainly, the educational establishment was very much against it, as was the tabloid press.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25"You can't get a degree just by watching television."
0:08:25 > 0:08:27The Civil Service was very hostile.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32The Civil Service wanted at one stage to turn it into the sixth form of the air.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36They couldn't bear the idea that the public should be able to be educated.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40Even among his on party, Wilson wasn't feeling much love.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I think there was a bit of a view
0:08:42 > 0:08:44on the part of some people
0:08:44 > 0:08:48that this was all going to be for middle-class women.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53These were the people who had missed out in the 1950s.
0:08:53 > 0:09:00Wilson's University of the air had become a Cinderella of a project in need of a fairy godmother.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02And it got one - Jennie Lee.
0:09:03 > 0:09:10The degree of freedom that it will give to creative intelligence...
0:09:10 > 0:09:15She was the widow of Nye Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16Jennie Lee was
0:09:16 > 0:09:19a miner's daughter who came out of the Independent Labour Party -
0:09:19 > 0:09:23the heart and soul in the campaigning tradition of Labour.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Able-bodied men and women...
0:09:25 > 0:09:30She was an MP at the age of 24, before she was old enough to vote in 1928.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34During the '30s, she married Nye Bevan
0:09:34 > 0:09:39and it was only on his death, and Harold Wilson, possibly as a wreath for Nye,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42that he asked her to become First Minister for the Arts.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47And then secondly, to take over his pet project, which was a university of the air.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52The Prime Minister said, "For God's sake, will you take on this university project?"
0:09:52 > 0:09:57And I said, "Harold, I'll take it on on the same conditions as the arts,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59"that you'll back me when I need money."
0:09:59 > 0:10:01He never let me down.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03I think I only met Jennie Lee once,
0:10:03 > 0:10:08and then really I was there just to be indoctrinated, really.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11I mean, she just sprayed herself over me, as it were.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13She was a wonderful woman.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17She was an icon. She was there for the spirit, for the ethos.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22My father's view was that television and other distance learning techniques
0:10:22 > 0:10:25might be used for diplomas or for individual courses,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and Jennie Lee's view was, from the very beginning,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32that it should be a full-scale university
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and a university where the standard had to be as good as any other university,
0:10:36 > 0:10:38otherwise it wouldn't be taken seriously.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Lift-off.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42We have lift-off on Apollo 11.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46And they're in orbit.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Two and a half.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Four forward. Houston... the Eagle has landed.
0:10:55 > 0:10:591969, the year of the first Moon landing,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02and the University of the Air took off,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06although it was now, by royal charter, the Open University.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10And its troubles were far from over.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19As political battles were being played out on the streets of Britain,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21the OU faced one of its own.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24With a general election in 1970,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28it looked likely from the polls that a Conservative government would come in,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31and Iain Macleod, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34had made it very clear he was going to scrap it.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38The old system made sense in the circumstances of the 1940s.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43The OU couldn't be Labour's pet project any more.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46It was down to the academics to prove its worth.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51And Walter Perry, Vice-Chancellor-elect of the Open University,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54one of his jobs was to persuade Jennie to stand back
0:11:54 > 0:12:00and allow him to depoliticise the Open University from being simply a Labour instrument.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Walter Perry was a heavyweight academic and another no-nonsense Scot.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Anyone who came in an atmosphere of scepticism
0:12:08 > 0:12:13was putting his or her career on the chopping block, as it were.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17He exuded toughness. He looked physically tough,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21and when you were there, spoke with a Scots accent -
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"I want this and I want that." And that was fine.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28He was fighting his corner, and he did it very effectively.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32And round one was a meeting with a future Education Secretary,
0:12:32 > 0:12:38the politician who stopped free milk in schools - Margaret Thatcher.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41And he argued fiercely with Margaret Thatcher
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and he thought, at the end of it, he'd blown it.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48He was pulling his hair out. He wouldn't survive an incoming Tory government.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50And they said, "No, it was just what she wanted.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53"You gave her the arguments, facts, statistics, you were robust.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56"She'll run with it." As indeed she did.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Perry had proved they were serious-minded.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04The Queen has asked me to form the next government.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09All they needed now were students.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13They had expected 25,000.
0:13:13 > 0:13:1540,000 applied.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21It was the biggest intake of any British university. They built their own post office.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26Of course, the last thing you'd want when you'd 30 tonnes of teaching material to mail out
0:13:26 > 0:13:28is a postal strike.
0:13:28 > 0:13:29Guess what.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Are you prepared to stay out until we have a settlement?
0:13:32 > 0:13:36CROWD: Yes! # We ain't coming back... #
0:13:36 > 0:13:42There was a postal strike of seven weeks. That meant it all had to be privately delivered through vans
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and so on. Walter Perry, the Vice-Chancellor, was one moment
0:13:45 > 0:13:49negotiating funding, the next rolling his sleeves up
0:13:49 > 0:13:53and helping pack boxes of material to be sent out to local study centres
0:13:53 > 0:13:54to beat the post office strike.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56So what kind of people had signed up?
0:13:56 > 0:13:59A great comedian,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Johnny Kennedy. Johnny Kennedy.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05I know the OU would love to think
0:14:05 > 0:14:08that they're going to attract the working man in his thousands,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10and I don't think they are.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12I think they must reconcile themselves to the fact
0:14:12 > 0:14:14that this will never happen.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The first time I came up here was because of football...
0:14:18 > 0:14:20Johnny Kennedy joined early on.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25Like me, he did stand-up and had to fit his studies in with gigging, as I did.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29But back in the '70s, hardly anyone knew what the OU was.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32I'm reading my book and they're saying, "What's that you're reading?"
0:14:32 > 0:14:36They think it's the Playboy annual usually.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41When they find out it's something to do with university, they sort of shy away.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45"What will you do when Jesus comes to Liverpool?"
0:14:45 > 0:14:49And somebody wrote underneath, "Move Kevin Keegan to inside-left."
0:14:49 > 0:14:53'Today, I wonder how he feels about it all.'
0:14:53 > 0:14:56I was just an ordinary working-class kid in Liverpool.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00I took the 11-plus exam and passed it and went to a grammar school,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04which I loved, and that's where I was first introduced to Shakespeare.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07But when it came time to go into the sixth form,
0:15:07 > 0:15:12my mum and dad didn't see any point in going into a sixth form.
0:15:12 > 0:15:13They needed me to earn some money.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18I think our generation and the generation before of parents wouldn't think about...
0:15:18 > 0:15:22of working-class parents, wouldn't think about pushing their kids that way.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24I really did feel cheated by that.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29- I'd gone down roads that I would not have gone down if I'd gone to a conventional university.- Uh-huh.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32And the OU was going to put that right.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35I was going to get the degree that I deserved.
0:15:35 > 0:15:36Stand by, please.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Elbow patches freshly ironed, and hair on standby,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42in January 1971,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45the Open University was finally open.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47And cue.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Good morning, and a very happy New Year to all of you.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03And everybody was going to get a look-in on this university.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07Now, do you think that that is what's going to happen on the Moon?
0:16:10 > 0:16:14I think that's pretty clear what each of these vectors represents.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18Then it's a simple matter for you to find a restriction on this line h.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31Then taking a little grease, put it on an eyelash...if I can find one,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and get the eyelash into the grease at the end.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36Right, that's how you make the micro-needle.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42I'd like to consider the features that you might say make up the new and exciting Mannheim sound.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48But strangely, not a kipper tie in sight.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55I think you'll agree that's a pretty complicated motion.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01In the days when there were only three TV channels, and they weren't on all day,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04the OU had found a home on the youngest and grooviest.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10In Conversations For Tomorrow,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14JB Priestley entertains two distinguished guests to dinner.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19Part of the mission of BBC2 was to put further education on television -
0:17:19 > 0:17:21evening classes for the nation.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Let the vegetables just sweat for about ten minutes.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30The OU programmes had been more or less imposed on the fledgling BBC2,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34and the new controller HAD to find a place for them.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37I wanted my further education programmes to be very attractive.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39I didn't want to start off with
0:17:39 > 0:17:43some really boring programme about quadratic equations.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46These are the only two possibilities.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50So I had the invidious position of having to say,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"I want these hours to do general programmes
0:17:53 > 0:17:57"and I will stick Open University programmes
0:17:57 > 0:18:02"somewhere where most BBC2 viewers won't mind."
0:18:02 > 0:18:05These were programmes for where the sun don't shine.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07I expect you regard this as all rather trivial.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Kepler's study of planetary motion...
0:18:10 > 0:18:14And when showbiz met academia, it wasn't always a happy marriage.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19Colin Robinson directed some of the first programmes.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24We were given the studios which News had just vacated at Alexandra Palace.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27It was stripped of gear, so our engineers had to go out on a lorry,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30literally, and scrounge bits of kit from other bits of the Beeb
0:18:30 > 0:18:32to put together a black and white studio.
0:18:32 > 0:18:38The OU might have been paying for the programmes, but the BBC were calling the shots.
0:18:38 > 0:18:39In social sciences,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42we're using television essentially for three purposes.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45I thought it was very difficult at times,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48because the BBC was an established,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53well-recognised, well-thought-of institution, and the OU was not.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58We said, "We're making the programmes," and I did have conflicts with academics over that.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Right down to the detail of them saying,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04"I will give my lecture," in effect, and we would say, "Well, no."
0:19:04 > 0:19:08The student, he's never heard the story before and he's on his own.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11He's sitting there with the telly. The telly's only eight feet away.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13There's you and there's him. There's nobody else.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17One example of what I call "BBC bullying" in a way.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21I was sitting up here and I had a phone call from the producer.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23Said, "Mike we've got a crisis.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28Jim Barber is refusing to take off his shirt, which is brown.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31"We cannot have a programme with a brown shirt."
0:19:31 > 0:19:34And I said, "Surely you can get somebody to..."
0:19:34 > 0:19:37He said, "You've got to be here, in Alexandra Palace.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40"Otherwise I'll wipe the programme.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42"That's 40,000 quid gone."
0:19:42 > 0:19:44They were academics. They were teachers.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48They were not expecting to be used as puppets in a TV studio.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Drove all the way down to Alexandra Palace. When I got there,
0:19:52 > 0:19:57of course he'd changed his shirt for a blue shirt with one of the technicians.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Don't expect a conventional documentary television programme.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06The other thing that is remarkable now is that it was all so crude.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08That vector represents...
0:20:08 > 0:20:10A bit tricky, actually.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15Very primitive models, graphics where you had to pull bits of cardboard and they would fall over.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17It was hilarious, in many senses.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22They were not there to seduce people into knowledge.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26"I will tell you what a quadratic equation is and this is what it is."
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Except that this time I want to solve it using orthogonality.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32You rehearsed for two days.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38And then, in the last hour, you then shot the whole thing.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41He was showing this damned thing off to the left. It looked awful.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45The programmes were 25 minutes and we had an hour to get things right.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Take three. Go on, let's do it again.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49It's much easier to do it now.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52'Very fraught, very stressful in that hour.'
0:20:52 > 0:20:57The senior producer was, I thought, particularly obnoxious in regard to this.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01So you had a sense of family, we had a sense of family - yours was a dysfunctional one.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Last time we ended in a state of confusion, to say the least.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12The television programmes are simply the cherry on the cake.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16I mean, the hard grafting... is done quite differently.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19It's got nothing to do with television.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24The brains of the OU operation were 45 miles up the motorway
0:21:24 > 0:21:27in a place that almost no-one had heard of until the '70s.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Wouldn't it be nice if all cities were like Milton Keynes?
0:21:40 > 0:21:45The grid system is based on roads spaced one kilometre apart.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51It will provide a uniformly good accessibility throughout the whole area.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56I didn't really have much connection with Milton Keynes when I started to study with the Open University
0:21:56 > 0:22:01simply because they don't have students at Walton Hall, and you only really post essays here.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07I used to go and watch Alexei Sayle back in the day when he used to take the piss out of Milton Keynes,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11and he would slightly tease the town planners and say they had to...
0:22:11 > 0:22:17they named things like, you know, the Gary Glitter Estate and the Dave Clark Five Roundabout.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Bay City Rollers Boulevard.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29A new town for a new way of thinking.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31If only it were that noble.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36Basically, they thought the Open University should start in a stately home of Britain.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42Then an ideology arose around it that this was all about sending signals about a new university in a new town.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46It wasn't, actually. It was just available, it fitted, and therefore they went for it.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51In those days, the whole campus was a sort of building site,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55and there was so much mud around that members of staff were issued
0:22:55 > 0:23:00with slippers they had to wear around the buildings so as not to spread mud around the place.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03It was very difficult to find,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06and one day I wasn't being very bright
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and I seemed to be going round and round the same roundabouts
0:23:10 > 0:23:16and there was a little old lady standing by one of them and she thought
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I was stopping to give her a lift cos it wasn't a nice day.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23But I said, "Can you tell me where the Open University is?"
0:23:23 > 0:23:26She said, "I don't bleeding well care!"
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Here was a university that most people would have struggled to recognise.
0:23:36 > 0:23:43For a start, there were no teenagers trying to find where the bar was or sign up for Drama Soc.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46Just a lot of academics writing lectures for students
0:23:46 > 0:23:49they would probably never meet.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Frank, could you summarise what we talked about at that meeting?
0:23:52 > 0:23:55The most definite thing that came out was a suggestion...
0:23:55 > 0:24:00There we were. We had a course team. We had to make a course. Nobody knew how you did this.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03Academics were having to bring out into the open
0:24:03 > 0:24:07their lectures and other materials and they got published.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12Actually, the university did quite a lot to lift the standard of teaching throughout the university system.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Units two to three, Hardy And His Influence.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Not too happy about that title.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18'And we had to improvise'
0:24:18 > 0:24:20every aspect of the whole system,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23what sort of course materials are appropriate
0:24:23 > 0:24:26for the part-time, distant learner.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Teaching science by post was particularly tricky.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37Rock samples for the Earth Sciences course can't be discreetly chipped off with a hammer.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39The founding fathers
0:24:39 > 0:24:43had to put their thinking caps on and really get round the problems
0:24:43 > 0:24:47of students who weren't used to handling scientific equipment.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51And this is a McArthur microscope. It's very cleverly designed
0:24:51 > 0:24:53and you look down there,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and lo and behold, it opens up another world.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59This was part of a big home experiment kit.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09The answer was the mother of all chemistry sets -
0:25:09 > 0:25:11a lab in a box.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Inside those kits were glassware,
0:25:15 > 0:25:22chemicals, brains, sheep's brains, so that students could look at the cellular patterns.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27We'd have a delivery of 7,000 sheep's brains to the campus every year.
0:25:27 > 0:25:33I'm told these apocryphal stories about people being brought in to cut these sheep's brains up.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35We became very unpopular with the Post Office.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40I'm honestly not quite sure what one is going to do with it at this stage.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44In the early days, we sent students sound recorders through the post,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47because people didn't have cassette recorders.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Now we have them in the bathroom, the car... Not then. We even sent them slide rules.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Do you know what a slide rule is?
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Do you want to see an OU slide rule?
0:25:56 > 0:25:58There's an OU slide rule.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01No-one had calculators, no-one had computers.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03We had to send this stuff through the post.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Fashions came...
0:26:13 > 0:26:15and went, thankfully.
0:26:18 > 0:26:19.625.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23But the OU looked as if it was still stuck in the past.
0:26:23 > 0:26:24And the 654...
0:26:24 > 0:26:29We made programmes knowing that they would last at least two, three or four years.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35What we didn't realise in the early days was that budgets would not be available to remake courses
0:26:35 > 0:26:40and least of all to remake what was probably the most expensive part of the course - television.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43So, many programmes, made in the days of black and white,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47went out for many, many years afterwards and became the butt of comedians' jokes.
0:26:47 > 0:26:53Giving us a resultant modular quantity of 0.567359.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Now, this should begin to give us some clues...
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Sorry, Brian, I'm sorry...
0:26:59 > 0:27:00What's happening?
0:27:00 > 0:27:05- LAUGHING - You said 0.567359.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07- Oh, no, I didn't, did I?- Yes.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11It should be 0.567395.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14I don't believe it! Oh, no!
0:27:14 > 0:27:17BOTH LAUGH
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Oh! BLEEP!
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Oh, Christ! BLEEP!
0:27:22 > 0:27:24BLEEP! BLEEP!
0:27:24 > 0:27:29You'd come in from some working men's club and you'd be tired, you'd had a long drive
0:27:29 > 0:27:33and it was on in the middle of the... I didn't like that at all.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35There was a man with a very big knot in his tie
0:27:35 > 0:27:39and Johnny Kennedy hair and sideburns talking about quantum physics.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41What will we use for alpha particles?
0:27:41 > 0:27:43All right, stop it.
0:27:43 > 0:27:49I watched it because it was comical, but no, it wasn't for me, basically.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53A visual peg on which to hang the detailed mathematical arguments...
0:27:53 > 0:27:57We did have the famous Arthur Marwick, who was the historian,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59and he was known for his cravats.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01What is its historical significance?
0:28:01 > 0:28:04You'd watch just to see how times he changed his cravat.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07But they do not need any obscure theory.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12We dressed as we would have dressed if we'd been at a normal university.
0:28:12 > 0:28:19To illustrate in visual terms the theoretical work which is discussed in the correspondence material.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24Most people had not been to a university, so they didn't know how lecturers looked.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27But just let me quickly remind you how it goes.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29'I hadn't done anything like that before.'
0:28:29 > 0:28:31I think my programmes were competent.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Some of my colleagues were real naturals and tended
0:28:34 > 0:28:39eventually to do far more than their fair share because they did it so well.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41We're all accustomed to getting and spending money,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44but why should somebody give something useful
0:28:44 > 0:28:47in exchange for pieces of paper and scraps of metal?
0:28:47 > 0:28:49Here's one way in which money changes hands.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Could I have a whisky and ginger, please?
0:28:54 > 0:29:00I was teaching in Northern Ireland in 1970 in a college of further education, in east Belfast,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02and I saw an advert for part-time tutors
0:29:02 > 0:29:05for the Open University, and it had just begun.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10Whether you despise it or desire it just for itself or for what it can buy...
0:29:10 > 0:29:12'I was a complete amateur.'
0:29:12 > 0:29:15I had no idea how television programmes were made,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18one end of a television camera from another.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20I was quite shy.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23It was quite an uphill struggle for me to do all that.
0:29:23 > 0:29:30Nowadays, most business is done by handing over cheques rather than by passing over notes and coins.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35The OU has always been a boffin's paradise
0:29:35 > 0:29:40and, as the technology got more exciting, so did the sets,
0:29:40 > 0:29:42while the presenters...
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Even with simple queries,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49the SQL processor needs to do quite a lot of work.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58And then came a piece of TV technology that meant you wouldn't have to try and stay awake.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05This old joke about Open University programmes going out at 2am, 3am,
0:30:05 > 0:30:11well, when VCRs came in - video cassette recorders - that was no longer necessary.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16You could send stuff to students, they could use it,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19you could even give them instructions and say,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24"I want you to play from here to here, then I want you to stop, read this, do this bit," and so on.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28It was interactive before interactivity became a buzzword.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30When I first got a video,
0:30:30 > 0:30:32I couldn't actually record them.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35For some reason, I couldn't manage to do that.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37Remembering to set, whether it was
0:30:37 > 0:30:4012am or 12pm and all that sort of thing, getting it wrong!
0:30:40 > 0:30:44It was this issue about how many people had VCRs,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48at what point could you say, "Yes, now we can send this out,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52"because we can expect students to have this kind of technology"?
0:30:54 > 0:30:59The OU wasn't the only ongoing experiment in education.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03The polytechnics were up and running.
0:31:03 > 0:31:08Universities like Keele and Sussex were creating new ways of teaching.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11More teenagers than ever were starting degree courses.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17And just down the road, another controversial project opened up shop.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22...is among the detachment of dons who've dropped this latest bombshell
0:31:22 > 0:31:24into the shock-ridden world of higher education.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27The University of Buckingham was founded by a group of scholars,
0:31:27 > 0:31:29mainly Oxford scholars, who believed
0:31:29 > 0:31:32the time had come for Britain to have
0:31:32 > 0:31:35a university independent of state funding.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38- Elitist?- Elitist, I regard as a term of praise.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42The Open University is quite socialistic in its inspiration.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46We're the exact opposite, we're quite free market in our inspiration,
0:31:46 > 0:31:51and the parallel is that we are the two universities, Buckingham and the Open University,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55that both come top every year of the National Students Survey.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57So what's the one thing we have in common?
0:31:57 > 0:32:03Half of the first 75 students have come from abroad to take part in this experiment in higher education.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09They'll pay around £5,000 in fees and expenses to get a Buckingham-style education.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13We're the only two universities who, for the last 30, 40 years in Britain,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16have systematically charged realistic fees.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21At a time when 18-year-olds could go to state-run universities for free,
0:32:21 > 0:32:26the OU, open to all, was making its students pay.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28Up to £500 for a degree!
0:32:28 > 0:32:34Not to be sniffed at when the average income in the early '70s was less than £3,000 per year.
0:32:36 > 0:32:43I feel that a lot of working-class people will steer away from the OU because of the cost of the degree.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47To be fair to the OU, I don't think it was ever part of the original business plan.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50They didn't fulfil, and part-time students still don't fulfil,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54the criteria by which you get full grants. They were forced to charge fees.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56They didn't pay full-cost fees,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59but they still had to make a substantial contribution.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05I always argued, throughout my time rather later, that it was wrong.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Of course, that has all changed subsequently.
0:33:09 > 0:33:10OK, you can switch it on now.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Finding the money isn't the only challenge OU students have faced.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Turn it off, love, it's flooding! All right...
0:33:17 > 0:33:21They've always been trusted, more or less, to get on with it.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26It used to get us into trouble, occasionally. I'd get a phone call from the Devon and Cornwall police
0:33:26 > 0:33:30to say they'd arrested one of our students on suspicion of making amphetamines.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34They'd raided his home and found his experiment kit, but what made it worse
0:33:34 > 0:33:39was that we'd written a course unit that went out with the course called Making Drugs.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41They put two and two together and made six.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45I had to go and appear in court to say that there's no way
0:33:45 > 0:33:49that using the chemicals in that box could make amphetamines.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52If you could, then I... I wouldn't be working here, would I?
0:33:54 > 0:33:57You may get some idea of the frustration
0:33:57 > 0:34:00and of the excitement of scientific research.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04Just when I thought I could do it, along came the second unit,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07and that was on relativity. That really floored me.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Mike Pence came on the television to tell us we could do it.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15I'm going to try and shoot a pellet into the tube on top of the glider,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19which is there to catch the pellet so it doesn't go flying around the studio,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21slaughtering everybody and sundry.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23And I thought, he's mad!
0:34:23 > 0:34:25He's nice, but he's quite mad!
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Then there's the question of finding the time to study.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34What with work, family, looking after your 12 children...
0:34:34 > 0:34:38I wouldn't have done it if they'd seemed to be reluctant.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40We helped you while you were doing it.
0:34:40 > 0:34:41Oh, yes, they helped a lot.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44'One of the things students find quite hard'
0:34:44 > 0:34:46isn't that they're managing themselves,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49but that they're either managing children, partners or friends.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51I always say to my students,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55"Real life has a habit of getting in the way of Open University study."
0:34:55 > 0:35:00I try not to let my studies interfere with family live too much,
0:35:00 > 0:35:04so I do most of me work while I'm at work.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07While I'm driving me bus, I go through my texts
0:35:07 > 0:35:12and all my OU work is done in this way, actually on the bus.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17An individual living in complete isolation, like Robinson Crusoe,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20must do everything for himself.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22You're on your own a lot of the time.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26I get up sometimes before 5am and study then and then go to work.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28I work as a dental nurse,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31and I've had my notes in my pocket, basically.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36Sometimes I've had a situation where I had to take a laptop into the hospital.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40I didn't want to defer my exam, my project.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43So I just had to do it at the hospital.
0:35:43 > 0:35:44I study better alone anyway.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47You're not joining the Open University to party.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50You're joining it to get that education
0:35:50 > 0:35:54and the qualifications, or in my case, just to keep the cogs well oiled.
0:35:54 > 0:35:5820 hours of study a week can seriously damage your social life.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01You can't even watch the TV like anybody else.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03How about you there?
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Well, can you repeat the question again?
0:36:06 > 0:36:09You need SOME human contact.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11That's where the OU tutors come in.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15The first OU tutor I came into contact with was a Yorkshireman,
0:36:15 > 0:36:21and I remember he said, "If you think I'm going to waste my time
0:36:21 > 0:36:26"marking a load of crap on these assignments, you've got another thing coming!"
0:36:26 > 0:36:29A lot of students come and they say at the beginning,
0:36:29 > 0:36:34"I've come because I was in a reading group, I love reading and I read about three books per week."
0:36:34 > 0:36:37And when it comes to it, they realise
0:36:37 > 0:36:43that reading and being able to write then an academic essay on it
0:36:43 > 0:36:45is very different from just the pleasure.
0:36:45 > 0:36:51The extraordinary thing about the students was that, compared to us when we were at university,
0:36:51 > 0:36:57Open University students were given reading lists and they read absolutely everything on the list.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00They would come prepared with questions.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03I felt on my mettle all the time.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06I was studying to keep up with my students.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08They were very dedicated.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12The biggest socio-economic group was school teachers,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15because school teachers, if they had a degree
0:37:15 > 0:37:20as opposed to a teaching certificate, got an immediate increase in pay.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24- If I didn't get an A...- You wanted to know why.- Yes, exactly.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27All that work I put in, clearly I got something wrong there.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31The essay was well written and I thought I'd made all the main points...
0:37:31 > 0:37:37Johnny, you're so competitive! I can't believe how competitive you are. You're a nightmare.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40I'll tell you how competitive I am.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42I used to go to summer school and work.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Ah, the summer schools.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49When conventional universities closed down for the holidays,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52the OU students moved in and started to act like...
0:37:52 > 0:37:54students.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56The summer schools were special.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Not only did they offer a week long of very intense activity,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02particularly for scientists working in their labs...
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Cleavage along parallel planes...
0:38:06 > 0:38:12But also a lot of our students hadn't been away from home for a week without their partner.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15I don't think any research has been done on the number of marriages
0:38:15 > 0:38:19that broke up as a result of studying for the Open University.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22It goes far too fast, doesn't it?
0:38:22 > 0:38:26I remember one year, all the tutors got a letter from the vice-chancellor
0:38:26 > 0:38:28saying we mustn't sleep with the students.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31I was 25 or 26, my students were much older than me.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34It was unlikely I was going to seduce them, I think.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40It was quite eye opening to a set-in-his-ways academic.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43The showering facilities were, as a matter of principle, shared.
0:38:43 > 0:38:48So I kind of wandered in, having found my way to the campus,
0:38:48 > 0:38:53to discover a very attractive girl suddenly appear from the shower.
0:38:53 > 0:38:54I thought, "Good heavens!"
0:38:56 > 0:38:58The students had paid to go there,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00they were determined to get as much out of it.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03They'd even ask you questions on the dance floor.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06There was always a disco on the Thursday when I'd shake my booty.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09But somebody would ask you for a dance only because
0:39:09 > 0:39:13they had a question they wanted to ask you, as a tutor.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18These were hardcore learners,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21and it was the summer schools that finally convinced
0:39:21 > 0:39:25a sceptical academic world that the OU weren't muckin' about.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27There was considerable doubt,
0:39:27 > 0:39:30and if an academic's only contact with the Open University
0:39:30 > 0:39:35was to see a television programme or hear a radio broadcast,
0:39:35 > 0:39:37that was a limited view.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41The summer schools really displayed the university at its best,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44because so many of them were staffed by a conventional academics.
0:39:44 > 0:39:50They realised they were dealing with a body of students that was equal,
0:39:50 > 0:39:54if not superior, to the ones they normally dealt with.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59ANNA FORD: I think the Open University created enormous change in some people's lives.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02I had one or two women who came to me
0:40:02 > 0:40:04saying their husbands had told them
0:40:04 > 0:40:07they didn't want them to go on studying any longer,
0:40:07 > 0:40:10because they were spending too much time over their books
0:40:10 > 0:40:13and not enough time looking after their husbands.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17The Open University is a bit of a toil,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21rather like having another bloke, but you can't chuck him out!
0:40:21 > 0:40:25Some changes were more dramatic than others.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27I was in prison.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29I was in solitary confinement.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32I was a very angry young man. I was involved in gangs
0:40:32 > 0:40:36in north London. I was robbing banks.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38I served 13 years out of 20.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43Bobby Cummines now advises the government on prison issues
0:40:43 > 0:40:45but, 25 years ago, he was in Parkhurst.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51I used to read a lot in prison and I used to listen to Radio 4.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53I loved the debates.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57I never did that outside. I started becoming inquiring about myself -
0:40:57 > 0:41:00you know, why was I different from everyone else?
0:41:00 > 0:41:02I started going to education classes.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06He said, "Why don't you do an Open University? You've got the time."
0:41:06 > 0:41:08I had lots of time on my hands.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10I thought, "Here I am, sitting with a pen.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13"In my life previously, I'd be sitting with a gun."
0:41:13 > 0:41:15It was that bizarre!
0:41:15 > 0:41:19I thought, "What am I doing? I can't really be a student!"
0:41:19 > 0:41:25And there I was, and someone had given me full marks for my assignment,
0:41:25 > 0:41:28and it was such a buzz. It was better than robbing banks.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30It was a buzz and a half
0:41:30 > 0:41:32- to know- I- could do it, not just some posh kid.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37It liberated me from crime, because I knew I could do something else.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45# Let me tell you about a girl who's breaking my heart
0:41:45 > 0:41:49# She decided lately to get smart
0:41:49 > 0:41:54# But now, whenever I go round to call
0:41:54 > 0:41:59# She's reading Lawrence and TH Huxley
0:41:59 > 0:42:03# With the Open University. #
0:42:10 > 0:42:13One of the unexpected changes for me
0:42:13 > 0:42:16was that the OU rekindled my love of libraries.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22So, in 2000, I sent off for the prospectus
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and I was blown away, really, by the huge range of materials.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30They send you all these course materials
0:42:30 > 0:42:33with titles like A210 and A171 and A300.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36It's like they're sending you motorways through the post!
0:42:36 > 0:42:39I knew about libraries cos my Auntie Pearl made me join when I was nine.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42I had to read Little Black Sambo endlessly.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45And...I got used to the idea of going to Dudley Library on occasion
0:42:45 > 0:42:50but then, throughout school, I didn't really have much to do with libraries.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Rejoining the slipstream of education, for me, in 2000,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58reintroduced me to this whole world of - what is a library for?
0:42:58 > 0:43:00It actually takes the fear away.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02You've got all these books,
0:43:02 > 0:43:05people who know where the books are supposed to go.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08All the information you need is right here in the library.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13It's more tactile than just looking things up online too.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16We'll look at this in more detail in the next programme.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21# To cut a long story short I lost my mind... #
0:43:21 > 0:43:25The '80s, and the OU were once again on the political radar,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27this time because of their teaching material.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32At a time when books were being banned or burned,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35when you were counter-culture or cash culture,
0:43:35 > 0:43:37for or against,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41the Open University found itself... against.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43When the real conflict took place
0:43:43 > 0:43:46between the Conservative government and the OU
0:43:46 > 0:43:48was actually when Keith Joseph was
0:43:48 > 0:43:54the Secretary of State for Education, and when they became concerned
0:43:54 > 0:43:59that there were all these left-wing Marxist academics there
0:43:59 > 0:44:02who were polluting the minds of the students
0:44:02 > 0:44:07by this left-wing ideology and left-wing propaganda.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10Would you like to tell me what this is?
0:44:10 > 0:44:14- A book.- And its title is Soviet history.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16It's part of the reading from my course.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Do I have to draw you a picture?
0:44:18 > 0:44:21Oh, would you? With little lambs running through the hills...
0:44:21 > 0:44:25Ann, I'm in deadly earnest. Can't you see the chain?
0:44:25 > 0:44:29- Moscow, Ostend, Dover, Milton Keynes.- Long walk.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Milton Keynes, Ann - the home of the Open University.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34Don't you realise, you have become a pawn of the Kremlin!
0:44:34 > 0:44:36'There were course team meetings where'
0:44:36 > 0:44:41you actually had to sit down and everybody had to answer the question,
0:44:41 > 0:44:45is there Marxist bias in this unit, this television programme?
0:44:45 > 0:44:46They had to take a vote.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Well, I think the answer is no.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53It did cause quite a lot of worry, I think,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56and Christodoulou was the Secretary of the University,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58so it cost him his knighthood.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01In some ways, it was a very fruitful time to be here,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05because there was that sense of pushing against the status quo.
0:45:05 > 0:45:10The TV operation had moved to the campus at Milton Keynes,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13but they'd already raised a few eyebrows.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16Isn't that the Green Cross Code man?
0:45:16 > 0:45:18..His Lordship and call me Mr Executioner...
0:45:18 > 0:45:22There was a version of The Balcony by Jean Genet,
0:45:22 > 0:45:25and it featured, bizarrely, Darth Vader, Dave Prowse,
0:45:25 > 0:45:28in a sort of cut-down leotard with a whip.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31Hurry up about it. I've got to go and get dressed.
0:45:31 > 0:45:37That did prove a little too meaty, so it was indeed banned for a while.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41It appears that this version of The Balcony was never transmitted, until now,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45and that wasn't the only space cadet they've had on.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Might there not be some charity in sin to save this brother's life?
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Please you to do it. I'll take it as a peril...
0:45:51 > 0:45:54Later on into the '90s, David Tennant worked with us
0:45:54 > 0:45:57on a series called Conjuring Shakespeare.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59That was interesting, because we went out for that.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01We went to Oxford and shot on location,
0:46:01 > 0:46:06as we did for a play that starred the then relatively unknown Daniel Craig.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08That was The Rover by Aphra Behn.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11It was three and a half hours.
0:46:11 > 0:46:12Had she left me my clothes,
0:46:12 > 0:46:16I have a bill of exchange at home would have saved my credit.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19It was really interesting to work with people
0:46:19 > 0:46:23who you've since seen go on and make really good careers for themselves.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28- What's that? Is it a man or a bird? - A pig!
0:46:28 > 0:46:34Occasionally, though, what seemed like a good idea on the script just didn't do the job.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38I had one which was quite bizarre. It was the academic's idea.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42- Who are you?- PIG, or Pig for short.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46It was called the Problem Identification Game - PIG, or Pig for short.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48I don't know what you're on about.
0:46:48 > 0:46:49I thought it was very clever -
0:46:49 > 0:46:52wonderful, full of gags and jokes and so on.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54The students gave it the biggest thumbs-down ever.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58It's more important to begin a journey than to know where you're going.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01"No", said the students, "We don't know what it's about."
0:47:03 > 0:47:07The Open University has to conduct a lot of its business in public,
0:47:07 > 0:47:09for better or worse.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Like any British university, it has to do research,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15and it was an OU team
0:47:15 > 0:47:19behind the UK's most publicised step into space -
0:47:19 > 0:47:21the Beagle 2 mission to Mars.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26Three more attempts to find Beagle overnight, and three more failures.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Our best chance of a communication with Mars
0:47:30 > 0:47:34is to wait until Mars Express is available for use.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39Milton Keynes can feel a bit like the deserted set of Space 1999
0:47:39 > 0:47:41but, in dark corners,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45there are researchers handling strange objects.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Mahesh Anand is one of them.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50This is really heavy. What the heck is it?
0:47:50 > 0:47:54A piece of our solar system which then entered the atmosphere
0:47:54 > 0:47:58of the Earth as a meteorite, which is 4.5 billion years old.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01And you can actually examine little slices of it?
0:48:01 > 0:48:03We also have examples of rocks
0:48:03 > 0:48:06that have come from other planets, such as Mars.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08- No way!- And our own moon.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10Looks like a stained-glass window.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13- It's like a piece of art, isn't it? - It's beautiful.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16But you're not looking at the pretty colours.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17There's a point, isn't there?
0:48:17 > 0:48:19The larger picture is that
0:48:19 > 0:48:23we're trying to understand our own place in this universe.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Not easy to do if your equipment goes missing!
0:48:26 > 0:48:31Mahesh, can you tell me about your involvement with the Beagle mission,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34which, in the public's eyes, was deemed a bit of a failure
0:48:34 > 0:48:36because it didn't actually land?
0:48:36 > 0:48:38I think that we got a lot out of Beagle,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42even though it was not successful in the sense
0:48:42 > 0:48:45that actually it crash-landed, most likely,
0:48:45 > 0:48:47on the surface of Mars and we never heard from it.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50It doesn't write, it doesn't phone...
0:48:50 > 0:48:52Yeah, it doesn't write, it doesn't phone,
0:48:52 > 0:48:57but we must remember that those instruments that were sent on Beagle
0:48:57 > 0:49:00are now being planned to send elsewhere
0:49:00 > 0:49:03in the Solar System exploration missions.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08For example, one package on Beagle was going to look for organic carbon
0:49:08 > 0:49:11and is now being considered by NASA to send it to the Moon.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23The Open University was born out of the Space Age.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27It was driven by new technology.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32While the rest of the world was trying to work out what they had to do with it,
0:49:32 > 0:49:35the Open University already knew.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40They were the first British university to embrace computers...
0:49:41 > 0:49:46CD-ROMs... And it launched them into a whole new kind of space.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48It's almost as though the OU was waiting
0:49:48 > 0:49:51for the invention of the internet.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54When it came, it enabled us to reach people anywhere.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00Television had let students study at home.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04The internet allowed them to get out and do it.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06What we do is just
0:50:06 > 0:50:08write your assignment online and e-mail it.
0:50:08 > 0:50:13I think people would rather be surfing the net for information
0:50:13 > 0:50:14rather than reading books.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16I can do online stuff
0:50:16 > 0:50:18and I appreciate where people are coming from,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20but I just like books. I really like the big thing
0:50:20 > 0:50:24when you're starting a new course and your big parcel comes.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26It's these lovely, new-smelling, wonderful books.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28It's really exciting.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32But if you just turn on the computer and it's all there, you think, what the...?
0:50:33 > 0:50:38With global technology, a global expansion.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40- We're going to have an expedition. - Yes!
0:50:42 > 0:50:47There are now around 50 open universities in the world.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51The earliest ones were probably in India, where we helped to set up
0:50:51 > 0:50:54the Indira Gandhi National Open University,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56which is now one of the biggest in the world.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02But strangely, the Open University failed in the country
0:51:02 > 0:51:05that gave birth to television teaching, America.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Their culture is so different. Their learning culture is so different.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13They have virtual university projects sprouting all over the place.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15They don't need an Open University
0:51:15 > 0:51:18in the way that Britain needed one and still does.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22The OU was trying to do what lots of other people were already doing.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25There had to be the question in the potential customer's,
0:51:25 > 0:51:29potential student's mind - why go for this unknown British quantity?
0:51:29 > 0:51:32A US OU you had to be abandoned after two years
0:51:32 > 0:51:34at a cost of £9 million.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38I don't think we're ever going to make the mistake of believing
0:51:38 > 0:51:43that America is a suitable environment for this kind of university.
0:51:43 > 0:51:44Yet it still surprises me
0:51:44 > 0:51:47because it's so successful in other parts of the world.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51A team of five scientists are on a mission to solve
0:51:51 > 0:51:53a series of science challenges.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56On the telly, things were moving on too.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59The Open University had begun to make programmes
0:51:59 > 0:52:02that were not just for its students.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Together we are - Rough Science.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08- Mike, if you could shout out the angle.- 79.0.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11These were prime-time shows with a brain.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14But hang on, how will this help anybody get a degree?
0:52:14 > 0:52:18The Open University and the BBC thought, let's make programmes
0:52:18 > 0:52:22that are available and accessible to the general public.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25I think that came about as a recognition of
0:52:25 > 0:52:28the responsibility that the Open University has
0:52:28 > 0:52:29to reaching the wider public,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32not just its students who are paying for the courses.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35But it also has an extramural role, if you like.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Every university has an extramural department.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Ours just happens to be not just UK-wide
0:52:41 > 0:52:45through the BBC, our relationship with the BBC, but worldwide.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55With a myriad of ways to receive teaching material,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59the TV programmes needed to be less like lessons.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02It led to new, slick-looking co-productions with the BBC.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05The days of the old school were numbered.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08That's over a thousand million sides.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21And in 2006, we said goodbye to a unique bit of television history.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Nothing to fear, but fear itself.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34We hope that your studies...
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Those late-night broadcasts
0:53:36 > 0:53:40and the production centre at Milton Keynes were no more.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46There was some sadness when those late-night transmissions ended.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Partly because, almost everywhere you went, you'd find people
0:53:49 > 0:53:52who either knew somebody who'd done an OU course
0:53:52 > 0:53:54or they were doing one, or somebody in their family was,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58and they loved those transmissions. You'd maybe come in late at night,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00after a curry and couldn't quite sleep,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and people would catch something about Schroedinger's Cat.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06And that kind of created a community.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Education, education and education.
0:54:11 > 0:54:1540 years ago, the OU was pretty much
0:54:15 > 0:54:17the last chance saloon
0:54:17 > 0:54:20if you'd missed out on university after leaving school.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26Now, British universities compete to attract all sorts of students.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29And everyone pays fees.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35The space-age technology the OU helped pioneer is commonplace.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Thanks to the internet, we've all become
0:54:38 > 0:54:40distance learners of one sort or another.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45But it's not a university of the internet -
0:54:45 > 0:54:50no more than it was a university of the air when it was launched in 1969.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55The clue is in the name - the Open University.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59Well, it makes an enormous difference to all the people
0:54:59 > 0:55:02who wouldn't be accepted by other universities.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06You must remember, most universities do still have entry criteria.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10The Open University has no entry criteria.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12So about one-third of our students
0:55:12 > 0:55:14wouldn't be accepted by other universities
0:55:14 > 0:55:18and you can be quite sure that makes an enormous difference.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23The reality is, however hard you try to widen access,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27university education is essentially for the privileged classes.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30You may not feel privileged, but compared to others you are.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Within those parameters, I'd say the OU is probably broadest
0:55:33 > 0:55:36in its social background than any other,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39but probably not nearly as broad as it would like to be.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42Where it really succeeds is picking up the individuals
0:55:42 > 0:55:45for whom the conventional system didn't work so well.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Every university almost in the world today sees itself
0:55:48 > 0:55:50as a version of the Open University.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52Every single university I'm aware of
0:55:52 > 0:55:54has some form of outreach programme.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57But there's no university that any longer sees itself
0:55:57 > 0:56:01as trapped within their own walls. And it won't be long
0:56:01 > 0:56:05before Oxford, Cambridge and the American Ivory League universities
0:56:05 > 0:56:06begin to similarly reach out.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08I'm at the Barbican. I've got my gown on.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11I walk up onto the stage, David Puttnam gives me my scroll
0:56:11 > 0:56:15and I go, "Yes! This time I've really earned this.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19"This is six years of hard slog."
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Then a year went by.
0:56:21 > 0:56:23And I thought, is that it?
0:56:23 > 0:56:26Is that the end of my learning experience?
0:56:26 > 0:56:29So I decided it wouldn't be.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Now, I'm doing a master's degree in screenwriting.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36I never would have contemplated that before the OU.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39It's opened up a world of possibilities.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46This uncertain experiment,
0:56:46 > 0:56:51with its roots in Communist Russia, has touched the lives of millions.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56The desire to learn has been rekindled in me.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00I don't intend to stop learning, because I think...
0:57:01 > 0:57:04..learning is everything, really.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08..Comedian, Johnny Kennedy.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13I've always had the ability, but it did give me that second chance.
0:57:13 > 0:57:21It showed me how to use that ability in the most effective way.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23It taught me discipline.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26Open University changes lives.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28If I hadn't done OU, I would've been back robbing banks
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and been banged up for the rest of my life or shot dead.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35One of the things that pulled people together was this common enemy.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39The sceptics who said... they pooh-poohed it.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43Without any doubt it was the greatest achievement of Harold Wilson.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47With 185,000 students now enrolled. 20% overseas.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49Highest student satisfaction of any university.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52My father was really quite amazed and excited
0:57:52 > 0:57:56by quite how much it had grown and how innovative it had been.
0:57:56 > 0:58:01I think Jenny would be really pleased, thrilled and gratified.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05She believed that she had given to Harold Wilson
0:58:05 > 0:58:09a legacy similar to Nye's legacy for the health service.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11You want to get on. We're all very motivated.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14Open University students are extremely motivated.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18If you're no good, you don't pass. You don't get the qualification.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22It's no different to university in that sense. There's just no bar.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24That can be remedied.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27# Suddenly I see
0:58:27 > 0:58:30# This is what I wanna be
0:58:30 > 0:58:32# Suddenly I see
0:58:32 > 0:58:36# Why the hell it means so much to me... #
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:52 > 0:58:55E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk