William Fowler and Matthew Harle write that this was to ensure the Unit was visible to the community and that it was a less intimidating space for people to enter without having to go through security checks, for instance.
Programmes were styled on the format of popular talks shows and news reports of the day, but with a focus on social activism because community groups would be given editorial control over content.
Firstly, it created the broadcaster-as-publisher model in the UK, subsequently adopted by Channel 4, and now by streaming sites such as YouTube and post-mediated social media platforms such as Twitter.
[8][9] In a Board of Management Meeting on 7 December 1972, Attenborough presented Community Programmes,[10] a five-page report that proposed an experimental series, overseen by the CPU, to start in April 1973 (this would become known as Open Door).
Attenborough argued that the network could benefit from community programmes by bringing "unheard voices to a mainstream audience" and by also challenging traditional ways of creating content.
[10] To counter this, Attenborough argued that the CPU should investigate applications "and make formal recommendations supported with a summary of their research and reasons for commendation to a Selection Committee".
Open Door was to be the final transmission on Monday night on BBC Channel Two, a decision that was partly made because it was felt this late-slot would minimise the risk of offending a large audience.
[16][17] In a 1973 memo discussing the running order for the first series, Rowan Ayers cites the episode for broadcast and describes it as a "serious attempt to present the problems facing those who undergo a sex change operation" and says the group wish to make the programme "to break down the prejudices that must exist.
"[18] Broadcast in February 1976 by the right-wing The British Campaign to Stop Immigration group, this episode of Open Door put forth the argument for greater freedom of speech for all.
[19] One of the most well-known episodes of Open Door was aired in March 1979 entitled 'It ain't half racist, Mum' and presented by the Campaign Against Racism in the Media (CARM).
The episode features British sociologist Stuart Hall giving a close reading of the 1970s sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum and arguing that the show perpetuates racism.
Hall further presents examples of racism from current affairs and news programmes, including a clip from Tonight where Denis Tuohy interviews American white supremacist David Duke asking for his message to the audience of Britain.
"[25] Curators of the exhibition, Fowler and Harle believe that Open Door is culturally and historically significant writing that it should be remembered "as an affective political history of a period that bridges the unravelling of the post-war settlement to Thatcherism.
[26] Open Door was featured in the 'BBC - Oral History Collection' also known as "100 Voices that made the BBC: People Nation and Empire' curated by Emeritus Professor David Hendy and Dr Alban Webb, among others.