Money talks – Inside the Bank of England

It has been a tumultuous year Inside the Bank of England as a new OU/BBC collaboration is sure to demonstrate.

With unprecedented access, this two-part television series goes inside the Bank of England during 2018 as it navigates turbulent economic times, including the challenges posed by Brexit. The first hour-long episode is on Tuesday 2 July at 9.30pm on BBC2.

Few of us know how this powerful institution, which influences our mortgage repayments, prints our cash and tries to ensure our financial system is safe and secure, works behind closed doors.

The first episode reveals how the Bank influences inflation by setting the UK’s interest rate. Filmed during May 2018, the process is shown step-by-step as bank staff analyse the state of the UK’s finances, leading to Governor Mark Carney and other senior figures making their decision.

Episode two digs deeper into how the Bank keeps the economy up and running as, for more than 300 years, it has maintained a reputation for reliability and security. You can bring old bank notes to the Bank and it will exchange them at face value, even if the notes are hundreds of years old. Its underground vaults are so secure that foreign governments entrust gold worth billions to the Bank’s safekeeping!

Dr Michael Oliver and Professor Ali Ataullah were the academic consultants from The Open University Business School who worked on the series.