Open University - in Fiction

In Fiction

The Open University has been featured in many film and television programmes. The plot of Educating Rita surrounds the working class character aiming to "improve" herself by studying English literature. She attends private tutorials run by alcoholic lecturer Frank. The teaching methods are not an accurate portrayal of contemporary teaching at the OU.

Television characters have also followed OU courses. These include Anne Bryce in the BBC sit-com Ever Decreasing Circles, Yvonne Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart, and Bulman, in the ITV spin-off from the series Strangers. Sheila Grant (Sue Johnston) was accused of having an affair with her tutor in Brookside. Onslow, a character from Keeping up Appearances, watches Open University programming on television from time to time.

In Autumn 2006, Lenny Henry was a star in Slings and Arrows, a one-off BBC television drama which he also wrote, about someone who falls in love while on an OU English Literature course. (Henry has himself completed an OU degree in English)

In the 2006-7 TV series Life on Mars, Sam Tyler received messages from the real world via Open University programmes late at night.

In the 2005 science fiction novel Sunstorm, written by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, the fictional Astronomer Royal, called Siobhan McGorran, used to work for the Open University in Milton Keynes.

During the Black Books episode "Party", Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig) informs Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) that she had been admitted to The Open University, however her Admission Letter was destroyed by Bernard Black (Dylan Moran).