Watching Us, Watching You

BBC Radio 4 LW

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Archive on 4

Documentaries

Factual

Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond.

Archive on 4: Watching Us, Watching You

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Watching Us, Watching You

Ellen E Jones reassesses the BBC's public access TV project, the Community Programme Unit.

Ellen E Jones reassesses the Community Programme Unit - the BBC's public access TV project established in 1972, which produced programmes like Open Door and Video Nation.

Long before social media, reality TV and culture wars as entertainment, the BBC's Community Programme Unit - commissioned by David Attenborough - set out to create an ‘anthropology of everyday life’. Writer and broadcaster Ellen E Jones tells the story of the birth of a new generation of broadcasting.

The CPU was a 40-year experiment in breaking down the barriers between the national broadcaster and the nation. It all started in 1972 with an Open Door, through which we were suddenly able to see ourselves very differently.

There is one film from the CPU’s Open Door series that has lived on as a touchstone for understanding representations of race and racism on TV. It Ain't Half Racist, Mum was produced in 1979 and paired the revered cultural theorist Stuart Hall with actress Maggie Steed. Together they turned their attention to the casual prejudices which were part of the everyday media landscape. Ellen discusses its legacy with Maggie Steed and Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka.

By the mid-90s, times had changed for the Community Programme Unit and technology had too. There was still no social media, but there were camcorders - and that presented a great opportunity to liberate public access television from the stuffy studios and take it to the masses. It was time to meet the nation, on their own terms. Mandy Rose was the co-producer of Video Nation and she reveals how it changed her and paved the way for social media. Ellen travels to Arisaig in the West Highlands to talk with Ian MacKinnon, one of Video Nation’s most prolific contributors, about his films on everything from the meaning of life to The Full Monty.

Now, 45 years on from It Ain't Half Racist, Mum and 30 years since filming began on Video Nation, Ellen revisits some of the most surprising and impactful contributions from this rich, accessible and underappreciated archive. She reassesses public access television as a tool for listening to the national mood and facilitating more nuanced discussions about the absurd, profound and divisive aspects of life. 


Producer: Freya Hellier
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Archive on 4

Watching Us, Watching You

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4