Another option would be sliding barn doors which are easier to fit onto your current wall. My friend has these on her downstairs loo/utility.

It's definitely load bearing. Sharing a photo showing the current format.

Am not sure what you are trying to do - the opening is already there, but if you put in a pocket door system there then you'll only be able to open half of the space. Or are you hoping to have two pocket doors to be able to open up that whole space when needed? In which case you need to expand the opening (and provide structural support for the wall above) or build out the current wall and form the pockets in the new wall, which will eat into floor space a little bit. Or do the barn doors. With barn doors you can't have anything on the walls that the doors cover when they are open. With pocket doors you can still use those walls for art, lights, furniture, whatever. I suspect building out a new wall to house the pockets would be cheaper/cleaner than knocking a bigger hole in the wall and having to provide the beam and patch it all up.

I'm trying to separate the living room from the extended back area but without taking up loads of space with doors that open outwards.

Thanks for your helpful response

We have a similar open space and we are planning to build a second wall structure to hide double doors, instead of increasing the wall opening with more structural change. It will be bulkier but cheaper and we want a double door.

Do please share photos when you're done.

Look at Eclisse pocket doors and kits.