Open Media

In 2009 the British Film Institute announced that Open Media, in partnership with The National Archives, the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit,[4] 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".

[9] The company recently announced it had digitised its archive to make extracts from all its programmes available to the film, television and advertising industries: "Interviews, talk shows, magic and entertainment shows featuring hundreds of hours of personalities from all over the world who made rare appearances on our programmes, rare because they did not appear elsewhere on television; or only very occasionally and not at such length; or they weren't subject to such focussed scrutiny as our formats gave them.

"[10] 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.

featured extended and in-depth interviews with among others Jeremy Beadle, Morris Cerullo, Max Clifford, Germaine Greer, Olivia Newton-John, Jimmy Savile,[11] and Peter Tatchell: "a must-see, the most incisive chat show on the box".

[12] 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.

Comedians appearing include Harry Enfield, Jerry Sadowitz, Sandi Toksvig, Ian Hislop, Tony Slattery, Barry Cryer and John Wells.

[16] 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".

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.