Editing Open University (section)

== In fiction ==
The Open University has been featured in many films and television programmes. The plot of ''[[Educating Rita]]'' surrounds the working-class titular character aiming to "improve" herself by studying English literature. She attends private tutorials run by alcoholic lecturer Frank.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Educating Rita |url=http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/EduRita.htm |website=faculty.Frostburg.edu |access-date=8 April 2015 |archive-date=21 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121094359/http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/EduRita.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Television characters have also followed OU courses. These include Anne Bryce in the [[BBC]] sit-com ''[[Ever Decreasing Circles]]'', [[Yvonne Sparrow]] in ''[[Goodnight Sweetheart (TV series)|Goodnight Sweetheart]]'' and [[George Bulman (fictional character)|George Bulman]] in ''[[Bulman]]'', in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] spin-off from the series ''[[Strangers (1978 TV series)|Strangers]]''. [[Sheila Grant]] ([[Sue Johnston]]) was accused of having an affair with her tutor in ''[[Brookside (TV series)|Brookside]]''. [[Onslow (Keeping Up Appearances)|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.)<ref name="LennyHenry">{{Cite news |date=Autumn 2006 |title=OU to feature in new TV drama |page=5 |work=Sesame |issue=231 |url=http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/0/2006920_37060_o1.pdf |access-date=2006-10-08}}</ref>

In the 2006–07 TV series ''[[Life on Mars (UK TV series)|Life on Mars]]'', [[Sam Tyler]] received messages from the real world via Open University programmes late at night.

Dorian Green from ''[[Birds of a Feather (TV series)|Birds of a Feather]]'' announced she had been accepted by the Open University to do a degree in psychology and began studying with the university in series 3.

In the 2014 [[Booker Prize]] long-listed novel ''[[The Bone Clocks]]'' by [[David Mitchell (author)]], the protagonist Holly Sykes is referenced studying psychology at the Open University.

In the 2016 novel ''[[Swing Time (novel)|Swing Time]]'' by [[Zadie Smith]], the narrator's mother is a student at the Open University.

In the TV series ''[[Bottom (TV series)|Bottom]]'', specifically the episode ''[[Accident (Bottom)|Accident]]'', [[Adrian Edmondson|Eddie]], [[Steven O'Donnell (British actor)|Spudgun]], and [[Christopher Ryan|Dave Hedgehog]] watch TV while playing hide-and-seek with [[Rik Mayall|Ritchie]]. They fall asleep, leaving Ritchie in a cupboard until they finally awaken to an OU lecture on 'Medieval population distribution patterns in [[Lower Saxony]]'.