Open University

[www.doyouremember.co.uk]

Long before 24 hour Television, from the late 1970

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[smurfie1]

Re: Open University

I remember the sign/emblem thing they had, while waiting for kids tv to start.

[Richard1978]

Re: Open University

Same here, along with that trumpet jingle.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Open University

I remember do do do-ing along to the jingle and the funny sign that I never realised was an O and a U and seeing bits of the programmes. Lots of graphs and beards and beigyness. All tres boring.

[staffslad]

Re: Open University

A lot of programmes seemed to be shown very early or very late. VCRS were rare in the 70s, so anyone on an OU course had to be very dedicated to find time to see each programme, particularly if they also had a job. Many programmes from the 70s were made in B/W, particularly the studio-based ones for mathematics and other scientific subjects. I remember presenters with long hair and beards for those kind of programmes. I wonder if today's OU students watch those same B/W programmes as their 70s counterparts? After all, maths at that level hasn't really changed.

[Moonraker]

Re: Open University

As a child I use to often catch a glimpse of the OU programmes. All those equations and formulae were gobbledygook. Little did I realise that later in life I would come to admire these beautiful equations.

[Richard1978]

Re: Open University

There's an early episode of Only Fools & Horses where Grandad is watching the Open University, probably because there wasn't much else on TV at the time.

[staffslad]

Re: Open University

As a child I use to often catch a glimpse of the OU programmes. All those equations and formulae were gobbledygook. Little did I realise that later in life I would come to admire these beautiful equations.

Same here. When I was at university in the mid 80s I would try to catch the maths and applied maths programmes as they would quite often cover topics we were doing in class, and the presenters were pretty good at explaining concepts imo.

[George 1978]

Re: Open University

Each programme lasted 25 minutes long and followed a pattern through the course of the morning - Mathematics was one prominent subject where a sub-Fred Harris presenter wearing a kipper tie and a Rupert Bear jacket sticking magnetic numbers on a writing board - something that Carol Vorderman was just a few years from doing herself on Countdown. I can't imagine any student, bleary-eyed from a Saturday night's booze up the evening before becoming sober enough to study first thing Sunday morning - but I suppose that anything would be possible as the OU had a lot of people graduating some time later.

It was always on Sunday mornings on BBC 2 until around 3.00 pm when Sunday Grandstand would take over - all you had on the other channels were programmes for non-English speakers on BBC 1 and a church service on ITV. Needless to say, the TV set was mostly switched off on Sunday mornings and the radio was on, while the Sunday dinner was cooking in the oven.

But the OU was well parodied wasn't it? Smith and Jones parodied a 1970s version of the programmes in 1986, and Hale and Pace also did some as well.

And they ended up as part of the Learning Zone on BBC2 - until they stopped showing them at the end of 2006.

[Richard1978]

Re: Open University

I remember one sitcom (probably Birds Of a Feather) where someone was trying to video something on breakfast TV but set the channel wrong, & ended up with a recording of the OU. I'm not sure if it was a real instalment or a spoof, but the presenter had a big beard & horn rimmed glasses for sure.

[George 1978]

Re: Open University

I often thought that Granada's science programmes shown on the ITV Schools service such as Experiment and Chemistry in Action were partly influenced by the Open University.

I suppose that the closest we have to a "university of the air" these days is Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge - also a Granada programme.

[angliaknight]

Re: Open University

There is no such thing as off peak now, everything, most time slots are important, years ago you had progs for schools in the mornings and afternoons on both bbc and itv, then schools were iirc moved to C4 , then no more schools progs on the main channels, both networks had weekend adult educational in the mornings.
I suppose the only graveyard shifts now are the gambling slot from midnight till 2.00am and the nightscreen/teleshopping slots, always surprised we have tried and never succeeded in creating a 11.30pm till 1.00am late night chat show that has been so successful in America for many years, competition is fierce for the late night audience.
Times change, years ago we would turn on the radio first thing in the mornings now its the tv, unheard of back then and the set wouldnt have been turned on till at least 5.00pm.