:Open Media

File:Alan Clark on Channel 4 Opinions 21 February 1993.jpg - Opinions]]

File:Publicity_material_for_the_tv_series_"James_Randi,_Psychic_Investigator".jpg - ITV series]]

After Dark featured appearances by such well-known figures as Buzz Aldrin, Andrea Dworkin, Patricia Highsmith, Shere Hite, David Irving, Bianca Jagger, Christine Keeler, Adnan Khashoggi, Bruce Oldfield, Edward Teller and Peter Ustinov.

The two series of Is This Your Life? featured extended and in-depth interviews with among others Jeremy Beadle, Morris Cerullo, Max Clifford, Germaine Greer, Olivia Newton-John, Jimmy Savile,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mJ4a0ODPBM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/-mJ4a0ODPBM| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=IsThisYourLife |via=YouTube |date=22 October 2012 |access-date=17 January 2016}}{{cbignore}} and Peter Tatchell: "a must-see, the most incisive chat show on the box".A. A. Gill, The Sunday Times, 6 August 1995

Open Media has produced talks by such figures as Edward de Bono, Brian Cox, Linda Colley, James Goldsmith, Paul Hill, Dusan Makavejev, G.F. Newman, 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."Alan Clark, The Last Diaries, Weidenfeld, 2002, entry for 22 February 1993, {{ISBN|9780753816950}} Another Opinions talk – by Dennis Potter, also in 1993 – was given a cinema screening by the BFI in July 2014.[https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=A059211E-0DE9-4934-BF82-FE2B1924842C&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=1161FDF7-B55C-4A49-8A22-1417E7F34B1D Dennis Potter: The Outsider Inside], BFI website. Retrieved 4 July 2014

Among those appearing in a Channel 4 Opinions debate in Westminster Central Hall about democracy in Britain chaired by Vincent Hanna were Zaki Badawi, Christopher Hitchens, Paul Kennedy, Michael Mansfield, Geoff Mulgan, Vincent Nichols, Jonathan Sacks, Nancy Seear and Crispin Tickell.The Opinions Debate, transmitted by Channel 4 on 28 March 1993 (the eve of the 50th birthday of the then Prime Minister John Major)

Sportspeople appearing on Open Media programmes include Ian Botham, Fatima Whitbread and John Fashanu. Musicians appearing include Harry Belafonte, Eartha Kitt, Yehudi Menuhin, Sinéad O'Connor and Abdullah Ibrahim. Comedians appearing include Harry Enfield, Jerry Sadowitz, Sandi Toksvig, Ian Hislop, Tony Slattery, Barry Cryer and John Wells. Magicians include Simon Drake, Ricky Jay and James Randi. Politicians appearing include Edward Heath, Richard Perle, Edwina Curry, Albert Reynolds, David Miliband, David Steel, Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, Peter Hain, David Mellor, Teresa Gorman, Roy Hattersley, Paul Boateng, Gerald Kaufman, Enoch Powell, Merlyn Rees, Tony Benn and Bernadette McAliskey.

Mary Beard made an early television appearance in 1994 on an Open Media discussion for the BBC, Weird Thoughts.{{cite web|url=https://www.eofftv.com/index.php?title=Weird_Thoughts_(1994)|title=Weird Thoughts (1994) @ EOFFTV |website=Eofftv.com |access-date=18 March 2020}}

File:Sideshow attraction featured in The Secret Cabaret.jpg]]

File:Don't Quote Me with guests Austin Mitchell and Carol Thatcher.jpg, Geoffrey Perkins with guests including Austin Mitchell, Carol Thatcher and Simon Williams, Channel 4 1990]]

Entertainment series include The Secret Cabaret and Don't Quote Me, hosted by Geoffrey Perkins and described as "forerunner to Have I Got News For You and every other comedy panel show thereafter".{{cite web|url=http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=60167 |title=Geoffrey Perkins RIP |website=Ilxor.com |access-date=17 January 2016}}

Factual series and specials include

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• After Dark
• Brave New World
• The Great Pot Debate
• The Greatest F***ing Show on TV ("comic Jerry Sadowitz argues for more bad language on TV",Evening Standard, 15 March 1994 "probably contains the greatest number of swear words ever uttered on British TV"The Times, 26 March 1994)
• Is This Your Life?{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/24531 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612070230/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/24531 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 June 2008 |title=Is This Your Life? (TV series) | BFI |website=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=17 January 2016}}
• James Randi: Psychic Investigator
• John Wells and the Three Wise Men{{cite web |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b796e6360 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140812174040/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b796e6360 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 August 2014 |title=John Wells and the Three Wise Men (1988) | BFI |website=Explore.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=18 January 2016 }}
• Natural Causes{{cite web |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/556996 |title=Natural Causes (1996) | BFI |website=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=17 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011063231/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/556996 |archive-date=11 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}
• Opinions
• Orient: Club for a Fiver{{cite web|title = Shows with Olivia Newton-John, James Goldsmith, George Soros and Andrew Neil|url = http://www.openmedia.co.uk/productions|website = Openmedia.co.uk|access-date = 17 January 2016}}
• The Spy Machine
• Suez: A Personal View by historian Andrew Roberts[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1996-10-23 Radio Times, 23 October 1996]
• The Talking Show with Sandi Toksvig

{{div col end}}as well as various films for Channel 4's Equinox, e.g. Secrets of the Super Psychics, Superpowers?{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/475347/superpowers |title=Superpowers? (2001) – Overview |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=17 January 2016}} and Theme Park Heaven.{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/477081 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090527110107/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/477081 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 May 2009 |title=Theme Park Heaven (1992) | BFI |website=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=17 January 2016}} Another Open Media film for Equinox - The Big Sleep{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/516396 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090527110214/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/516396 |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 May 2009 |title=Hypnosis – The Big Sleep (1994) | BFI |website=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=17 January 2016}} - was the subject of a lengthy article in 2022.[https://www.cosmic-pancakes.com/blog/big-sleep HYPNOSIS ON THE SMALL SCREEN] by Kev Sheldrake, accessed 16 June 2022

The company mounted an unusual discussion - Weird Thoughts for BBC2 - in 1994. This was characterised in an article in 2021 as follows: "Weird Thoughts, where Tony Wilson chairs a panel of experts debating why the 1990s seem so very strange. There are a lot of familiar faces here – the late James Randi, Fortean Times founder Bob Rickard, esoteric scholar Lynn Picknett – but today the biggest name is the one hovering around the back of the gathering: a young Mary Beard."[https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk Weird ’90s – Weird Night], article in Horrified magazine, 17 May 2021, accessed 10 November 2021

One of the company's documentary specials – The Mediator{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/536006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129182807/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/536006 |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 January 2009 |title=The Mediator (1995) | BFI |website=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=17 January 2016}} – was described in the British Medical Journal as providing "a new clinical role for a community psychiatrist – namely, healing rifts between gangs of aggressive young men in two neighbourhoods...a lively and well reasoned example of what can be done by a professional with group and family mediation skills."A new role for a psychiatrist?, review by Richard Morriss, British Medical Journal, October 1995 A documentary on advertising agency M&C Saatchi required two months filming: "The brief was to expand on ideas from the company's manifesto...It's the first time the Saatchi breakaway has allowed unrestricted access behind scenes."Open Media gets inside story on M&C Saatchi, Televisual magazine, September 1998

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• After Dark
• List of After Dark editions
• Opinions
• The Secret Cabaret
• Secrets of the Psychics
• The Spy Machine
• Anthony Clare
• Uri Geller
• Jonathan Kaplan
• Helena Kennedy
• Sinéad O'Connor
• Dennis Potter
• James Randi
• Jerry Sadowitz
• Gordon Thomas
• John Underwood
• Tony Wilson
• Leyton Orient F.C.

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [http://www.openmedia.co.uk Open Media]
• [http://www.openmedia.co.uk/the-team Open Media staff – past & present]
• [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/632c2daf5021233f393b0357/t/6350629f265f097313a76b97/1666212512429/Open+Media+archive+collection.pdf Details of all programmes in the Open Media catalogue]
• [https://www.imdb.com/company/co0181338/ IMDB]

{{Authority control}}

Category:Television production companies of the United Kingdom