Open Door - Their Own Say, In Their Own Way

With platforms such as YouTube and TikTok more popular than ever, sharing your message with the world has never been easier. But decades before the advent of social media, a corner of the BBC was preparing to hand over editorial control to anyone with a cause they wished to promote.

In 1973, the BBC's Community Programme Unit was born. Its aim was to give airtime to ordinary viewers, whether or not they had any previous experience of television.

Director of Programmes David Attenborough wrote in a memo the previous December that programmes made by the proposed unit could highlight "voices, attitudes and opinions that, for one reason or another, have been seriously neglected". He also hoped that this new programming might bring with it "stylistic innovations, new ways of handling film or videotape… [and] new editorial attitudes that do not derive from the assumptions of the university-educated elite…"

In April 1973, the unit's first programme launched on BBC Two. It was a new series called Open Door, described in the Radio Times as: "A live weekly programme in which people and groups are given a chance to have their own say in their own way."

Open Door would last for ten years, with the debut episode by the St Mungo's Community Trust examining homelessness in London. A short film showing volunteers counting the number of rough sleepers for a survey was shown, along with vox pops inserts with members of the public, but the bulk of the programme came from a sparsely furnished studio where discussions took place with academics and those directly affected by homelessness.

This offering is one of more than a dozen featured in a retrospective looking at the first century of Open Door episodes, Open Door: 100 Programmes. Chris Dunkley, television critic of the Financial Times, looks back fondly on shows made by groups and individuals from all parts of the community, with some contributors returning to talk about why they wanted their say and what their programmes had achieved.

It's a good place to start if you want an introduction to the Open Door phenomenon.

Open Door created a space for often neglected voices and captured unique social histories.

Nor was the any fear of turning the lens inwards. The 1979 episode It Ain't Half Racist Mum, presented by Stuart Hall and Maggie Steed of the Campaign Against Racism in Media, took a hard look at output from the BBC (and ITV), casting a critical eye on some popular British comedies of the time.

The programme also examined the BBC's approach to balance and impartiality, highlighting where language and images used in news reports built on stereotypes rather than challenging unsupported information and allegations.

Filmmakers were given space to present their honest, unedited views, and they did just that.

While Open Door often gave its contributors the opportunity to tackle tough social issues, its inclusive remit didn't omit those who wanted to show off their skills, hobbies and interests.

In November 1974, the programme split one episode between Elkan Ola Ogunde, the self-styled 'Mr Sunshine' whose aim was "to bring a little of Africa's sunshine into the classrooms of Britain with my kind of music and dance", and the bell ringers of St Mark's in Cleveland, North Yorkshire, who held forth on the intricacies of their endeavours (not universally popular among the locals).

Young and old alike were represented. In October 1973, the London Trade Unions and Old Age Pensioners Joint Committee spotlighted the hardships and misery experienced by many pensioners, while 'The 73 Club' in Glasgow sought to break down social barriers between young men from different backgrounds in March 1974.

Of course, there was also room for a little bit of eccentricity. The Whetley Voice was a community newspaper in Bradford covering an area stretching "from the traffic lights up there to the traffic lights down there", while Leisure For All, Work For All proposed solving the threat to employment from increasing automation by splitting the year evenly between work and leisure in the ultimate shift pattern - six months on, six months off.

Viewing figures for episodes of Open Door weren't always high, but the programmes captured the voices of diverse groups and created snapshots of UK communities throughout the 1970s and 1980s which may not have been represented on TV elsewhere.

Later programmes from the unit included the successful Video Diaries (1990-1999) and Teenage Diaries (1992-1993) series, where amateur filmmakers took hold of cameras themselves and recorded their own personal stories away from studios and any BBC 'expertise'.

Perhaps the social media revolution we see as a thoroughly modern invention arrived far earlier than we thought.

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