Open Media
Encyclopedia
Open Media is a British television
production company
, best known for the discussion series After Dark, described by The Daily Mail as "the most intelligent, thought-provoking and interesting programme ever to have been on television".
The company was founded in 1987 and has produced over 400 hours of television for all the main UK network broadcasters, including BBC TV, the ITV
network and Channel 4
. It has made entertainment series and factual specials which have sold all over the world. It also produces communications and corporate media for some of Britain's most important businesses.
Open Media programmes have been nominated for many awards by the Royal Television Society
and the British Academy BAFTA.
Two different Open Media productions were featured during the 25th anniversary of Channel 4
in autumn 2007: The Secret Cabaret
and After Dark
were shown again on More4
during the celebratory season.
In 2009 the British Film Institute
announced that Open Media, in partnership with The National Archives, the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit, FremantleMedia
and the BBC
, makes programmes available online through InView as "examples of how some of Britain's key social, political and economic issues have been represented and debated".
In 2010 the Open Media series Opinions and After Dark were praised as "two of the best talk-shows ever seen on British television" in a well-reviewed book of social and cultural history.
.
: Psychic Investigator, The Mediator, John Wells
and the Three Wise Men, Natural Causes, Opinions, Orient: Club for a Fiver, The Spy Machine
, The Talking Show, and Weird Thoughts, as well as various films for Channel 4's Equinox
, e.g. The Big Sleep, Secrets of the Super Psychics
, Superpowers? and Theme Park Heaven.
, Ricky Jay
, Andrew Neil
, James Randi
, Jerry Sadowitz
, Sandi Toksvig
and John Wells
.
After Dark featured appearances by such well-known figures as Buzz Aldrin
, Harry Belafonte
, Andrea Dworkin
, Edward Heath
, Patricia Highsmith
, Shere Hite
, David Irving
, Bianca Jagger
, Christine Keeler
, Adnan Khashoggi
, Eartha Kitt
, Yehudi Menuhin
, Sinéad O'Connor
, Bruce Oldfield
, Richard Perle
, Edward Teller
and Peter Ustinov
.
The two series of Is This Your Life? featured extended and in-depth interviews with Jeremy Beadle
, Ian Botham
, Morris Cerullo
, Max Clifford
, Germaine Greer
, Olivia Newton-John
, Albert Reynolds
, Jimmy Savile
, Peter Tatchell
and Fatima Whitbread
: "a must-see, the most incisive chat show on the box".
Open Media has produced talks by Edward de Bono
, Linda Colley
, James Goldsmith
, Paul Hill, Dusan Makavejev
, G.F. Newman, Dennis Potter
, Andrew Roberts
, George Soros
and Norman Stone
. One such - an Opinions talk for Channel 4 in 1993 by Alan Clark
- was described in his diary (later published) as "It was good. Clear, assured, moving. I looked compos and in my 'prime'. Many people saw it. All were enthusiastic. Today acres of coverage in The Times
."
and
and
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
, best known for the discussion series After Dark, described by The Daily Mail as "the most intelligent, thought-provoking and interesting programme ever to have been on television".
The company was founded in 1987 and has produced over 400 hours of television for all the main UK network broadcasters, including BBC TV, the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network and Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. It has made entertainment series and factual specials which have sold all over the world. It also produces communications and corporate media for some of Britain's most important businesses.
Open Media programmes have been nominated for many awards by the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
and the British Academy BAFTA.
Two different Open Media productions were featured during the 25th anniversary of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in autumn 2007: The Secret Cabaret
Secret Cabaret
Secret Cabaret was a magic-based television programme that ran for two series, of six episodes each, on Channel 4 in the UK during the early 1990s. It was conceived and fronted by British magician Simon Drake and was praised for giving a new and shocking twist to the presentation of illusions...
and After Dark
were shown again on More4
More4
More4 is a digital television channel, run by British broadcaster Channel 4, that launched on 10 October 2005. It is carried on Freeview, on satellite broadcasters Freesat and Sky, UK IPTV broadcaster TalkTalk TV and on UK cable network Virgin Media and in the Republic of Ireland cable networks...
during the celebratory season.
In 2009 the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
announced that Open Media, in partnership with The National Archives, the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit, FremantleMedia
FremantleMedia
FremantleMedia, Ltd. is the content and production division of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, Europe's second largest TV, radio, and production company...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, makes programmes available online through InView as "examples of how some of Britain's key social, political and economic issues have been represented and debated".
In 2010 the Open Media series Opinions and After Dark were praised as "two of the best talk-shows ever seen on British television" in a well-reviewed book of social and cultural history.
Entertainment
Entertainment series include Don't Quote Me and The Secret CabaretSecret Cabaret
Secret Cabaret was a magic-based television programme that ran for two series, of six episodes each, on Channel 4 in the UK during the early 1990s. It was conceived and fronted by British magician Simon Drake and was praised for giving a new and shocking twist to the presentation of illusions...
.
Factual
Factual series and specials include After Dark, Brave New World, The Great Pot Debate, The Greatest F***ing Show on TV, Is This Your Life?, James RandiJames Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
: Psychic Investigator, The Mediator, John Wells
John Wells (satirist)
John Wells was an English actor, writer and satirist, educated at Eastbourne College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford...
and the Three Wise Men, Natural Causes, Opinions, Orient: Club for a Fiver, The Spy Machine
The Spy Machine
The Spy Machine was a documentary special about the work of the Mossad, made by Open Media and Israfilm and first broadcast by Channel 4 in May 1998...
, The Talking Show, and Weird Thoughts, as well as various films for Channel 4's Equinox
Equinox (television)
Equinox was a long-running Channel 4 popular science and documentary programme. The series ran from 1986 to 2001, originally aired on a weekly basis....
, e.g. The Big Sleep, Secrets of the Super Psychics
Secrets of the Super Psychics
Secrets of the Super Psychics was a Channel 4 documentary special in the UK, first shown in the Equinox strand in 1997, later reformatted as a shorter The Learning Channel episode in 1998: "Viewers eager to know more about the differences between science and claptrap should tune in".The 90-minute...
, Superpowers? and Theme Park Heaven.
Stars
Stars of Open Media productions include Simon DrakeSimon Drake
Simon Drake is the stage name of Simon Alexander; a British magician based in London. He is best known for the innovative and shocking television series Secret Cabaret made for Britain's Channel 4.-Early life:...
, Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay
Richard Jay Potash , better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.-Life and career:...
, Andrew Neil
Andrew Neil
Andrew Ferguson Neil is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics and This Week...
, James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
, Jerry Sadowitz
Jerry Sadowitz
Jerry Sadowitz is an American-born Scottish stand-up comic and card magician, known for his frequently controversial "sick humour". An accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand, he has written several books on magic and invented many conjuring innovations. He is widely acclaimed as one of the...
, Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
and John Wells
John Wells (satirist)
John Wells was an English actor, writer and satirist, educated at Eastbourne College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford...
.
After Dark featured appearances by such well-known figures as Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....
, Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
, Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...
, Shere Hite
Shere Hite
Shere Hite is an American-born German sex educator and feminist. Her sexological work has focused primarily on female sexuality. Hite builds upon biological studies of sex by Masters and Johnson and by Alfred Kinsey...
, David Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
, Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
, Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
, Adnan Khashoggi
Adnan Khashoggi
Adnan Khashoggi is a Saudi Arabian arms-dealer and businessman. He is also noted for his engagements with high society in both the Occident and Arabic-speaking worlds, and for his involvement in the Iran–Contra and Lockheed bribery scandals, and numerous other affairs...
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
, Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
, Bruce Oldfield
Bruce Oldfield
Bruce Oldfield OBE is a British fashion designer, best known for his couture occasionwear. He dresses Hollywood actresses, British and International royalty and European aristocracy; famous clients have included Sienna Miller, Barbra Streisand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diana Ross, Emmanuelle...
, Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
, Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
and Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
.
The two series of Is This Your Life? featured extended and in-depth interviews with Jeremy Beadle
Jeremy Beadle
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s, he was a regular face on British television and in two years appeared 50 weeks of the year. His shows regularly topped the charts beating Coronation Street and EastEnders on one...
, Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
, Morris Cerullo
Morris Cerullo
Morris Cerullo is an American pentecostal televangelist.-Early life and ministry:Cerullo, whose evangelistic ministry is based in San Diego, California, was born in Passaic, New Jersey to a Russo Jewish/Italian family. His parents died in an automobile accident when he was only two years old...
, Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
, Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Albert Reynolds
Albert Reynolds
Albert Reynolds , served as Taoiseach of Ireland, serving one term in office from 1992 until 1994. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize...
, Jimmy Savile
Jimmy Savile
Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops...
, Peter Tatchell
Peter Tatchell
Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
and Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread MBE is a British former javelin thrower and multiple medal-winner.-Early life:...
: "a must-see, the most incisive chat show on the box".
Open Media has produced talks by Edward de Bono
Edward de Bono
Edward de Bono is a physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote a best selling book Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking as a subject in schools.- Biography :Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono was born to...
, Linda Colley
Linda Colley
Linda Colley, CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is a historian of Britain, empire and nationalism. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University in the United States.-Early life and education:...
, James Goldsmith
James Goldsmith
Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...
, Paul Hill, Dusan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
, G.F. Newman, Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
, Andrew Roberts
Andrew Roberts
Andrew Roberts is an English historian and journalist.-Background:Roberts was born in London, England, the son of Simon from Cobham, Surrey, and Katie Roberts...
, George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
and Norman Stone
Norman Stone
Norman Stone is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara...
. One such - an Opinions talk for Channel 4 in 1993 by Alan Clark
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
- was described in his diary (later published) as "It was good. Clear, assured, moving. I looked compos and in my 'prime'. Many people saw it. All were enthusiastic. Today acres of coverage in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
."
See also
- After Dark
- List of After Dark editions
- The Secret CabaretSecret CabaretSecret Cabaret was a magic-based television programme that ran for two series, of six episodes each, on Channel 4 in the UK during the early 1990s. It was conceived and fronted by British magician Simon Drake and was praised for giving a new and shocking twist to the presentation of illusions...
- Secrets of the PsychicsSecrets of the Super PsychicsSecrets of the Super Psychics was a Channel 4 documentary special in the UK, first shown in the Equinox strand in 1997, later reformatted as a shorter The Learning Channel episode in 1998: "Viewers eager to know more about the differences between science and claptrap should tune in".The 90-minute...
- The Spy MachineThe Spy MachineThe Spy Machine was a documentary special about the work of the Mossad, made by Open Media and Israfilm and first broadcast by Channel 4 in May 1998...
and
- Dominic BrigstockeDominic BrigstockeDominic Brigstocke is a British television director, educated at Downside School. Mostly working in comedies, he's directed I'm Alan Partridge, Smack the Pony, Green Wing and The Armstrong and Miller Show amongst others.- Director :...
- Anthony ClareAnthony ClareAnthony Ward Clare was an Irish psychiatrist well known in the UK and Ireland as a presenter of radio and TV programmes.-Career:...
- Uri GellerUri GellerUri Geller is a self-proclaimed psychic known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other supposed psychic effects. Throughout the years, Geller has been accused of using simple conjuring tricks to achieve the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy...
- Jonathan KaplanJonathan Kaplan (writer)Jonathan Kaplan in a South Africa-born medical doctor and writer. He received his medical training in South Africa, Great Britain, and the United States. He is the author of two autobiographical books on war surgery in developing countries and related matters...
- Helena Kennedy
- Dennis PotterDennis PotterDennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
- James RandiJames RandiJames Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
- Jerry SadowitzJerry SadowitzJerry Sadowitz is an American-born Scottish stand-up comic and card magician, known for his frequently controversial "sick humour". An accomplished practitioner of sleight of hand, he has written several books on magic and invented many conjuring innovations. He is widely acclaimed as one of the...
- Gordon Thomas
- John UnderwoodJohn Underwood (PR adviser)John Underwood is a PR adviser, now executive director of Freshwater UK PLC. He founded the Clear consultancy in 1991 after work as a reporter and presenter for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, including many editions of After Dark...
- Tony WilsonTony WilsonAnthony Howard Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC....
and
- Leyton Orient F.C.Leyton Orient F.C.Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...