1971: Late Night Line-Up

Late Night Line-Up was BBC Two's late night discussion programme BBC Two in the 1960s and '70s about news, television and the arts, which usually involved candid discussions with invited studio guests.

Presented by Tony Bilbow, this particular episode featured a discussion among a group of workers in the Guinness factory at the Park Royal trading estate in London. The contributors gave their opinions about the quality and content of TV programmes in light of the recent increase in the licence fee.

As Bilbow says in his introduction, the idea was that "nothing has been taken out, the conversation is exactly as it happened".

This experiment inspired the conception of the Open Door series in which individuals or groups would make their own programmes, with the help of the newly-created BBC Community Programme Unit, to speak directly to audiences without editorial interference.

This programme was originally broadcast on BBC Two, Friday 19 February, 1971.

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