The Sunderland school which became a TV studio for 200 people

It happened in 1972 when 200 people, as well as TV cameras and presenters, packed into the hall at Hylton Red House.

Man Alive in Sunderland

They were all there to make a programme which would go out on national television about the problems facing school leavers.

BBC’s Man Alive team recorded the event. About 200 people took part in the debate which became a section of a TV programme called entitled Out Of School, Out Of Work’.

The audience included unemployed young people, their parents, teachers, including the headteacher of Red House School Kenneth Dyos, and youth workers.

75 minutes of debating

Representatives of local industry and trade unions were also present at the debate, which lasted about 75 minutes.

Of this, about 50 minutes was due to be screened on TV after a ten-minute long film at the start of the programme.

Desmond Wilcox was a part of the show and he spoke to the Sunderland Echo at the time.

We want to hear from you

He said: “I can only hope that what we have done here is at least to ventilate the issues and air the problems to encourage people to give it some thought. ”

Tell us if you were at Hylton Red House when the programme was recorded. Email [email protected]