Stewart Binns (born 2 August 1950) is a British author and filmmaker who has produced many

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, Grierson and Peabody award-winning documentaries.

Early life

Binns was born in

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

and brought up in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

, Lancashire by his single mother. After failing his 11-plus examination he went to St Theodore's Secondary Modern School and then on to Burnley Municipal College for his A-levels. From here Binns went on to study a BA in Politics & Modern History at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

and then an MA in International Relations at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. He also holds an MSc in Sociology of Education from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

Career

In 1974, while working at Lancaster University for a doctorate focused on political behaviour, and realising he was getting nowhere with it, he got a job at the BBC in their Audience Research Department doing a study of the influence of the media during the

1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum The 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, also known variously as the Referendum on the European Community (Common Market), the Common Market referendum and EEC membership referendum, was a non-binding referendum tha ...

. He then became a schoolteacher for several years and in 1980 passed selection for

21 SAS The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles, is a regiment of the British Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, t ...

, for which he served until 1983. In 1985, he re-joined the BBC and worked in Current Affairs and Documentary Features, including a stint on

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

. He later joined Trans World International, the television arm of Mark McCormack's

International Management Group IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, fashion, events and media company headquartered in New York City. The company manages athletes and fashion celebrities; owns, operates and commercially represents ...

, where he worked for 20 years and became its Director of Special Projects. After a brief period as Head of Production at Octagon CSI, in 2006, he began his own media company, Big Ape Media with his wife, Lucy.

Film work

Historical

Binns' history television credits include the 'In-Colour' genre of programmes – notably the

and Grierson winner, ''Britain at War in Colour'', and the Peabody winner, ''The Second World War in Colour''. His other historical work includes ''Chasing Churchill: In Search of My Grandfather'' broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, in which Celia Sandys,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

's granddaughter travels the world, including the United States, France,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and South Africa, in search of her grandfather's legacy. More recently Binns' television productions have involved a shift of perspective towards the

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

. ''Indochine: A People's War in Colour'' (2009) tells the story of the people of

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

and their battle to gain their freedom over three decades and through three wars. This was followed by ''Korea: The Forgotten War in Colour'' (2010) the story of the 1950–53 Korean War. Then came, ''Seisen: the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire'' (2012) – a history of Japan's militaristic ambitions during the first half of the 20th century, including their role in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His latest productions include, ''India: A Visual Homage'', a history of India from 1900 to 1985, ''Mao, A Study in Tyranny'', The Life of Mao Tse Tung, ''The Handshake for Peace'', the story of the FIFA peace initiative and ''Paris 1924, The IOC/Alibaba 1924 Colourisation Project to celebrate 2024 Paris Olympic Games''.

Sport

Binns has also produced a number of sporting programmes and projects. He launched the successful and still-running

Trans World Sport ''Trans World Sport'' (TWS), originally stylised ''Transworld Sport'' (still used in some television listings and electronic program guides) is a sports-orientated television programme produced by IMG Media in London, England. It is shown world ...

in 1987. In 1993 he launched, and was the first Executive Producer of,

FIFA Futbol Mundial ''FIFA Futbol Mundial'' was a football-related magazine show produced by IMG Sports Media in conjunction with FIFA. It ran from 1994 to at least 2014. FIFA maintained a YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sha ...

one of the longest running football-based magazine shows still on the air. Next he instituted the Olympic Games Camera of Record in 1994 – with a single camera crew and access to all areas, Binns captured the magic and atmosphere of the Games in a personal, behind-the-scenes style at each Games, from

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...

(1994) to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

(2004). Throughout the 1990s Binns produced a number of other Olympic documentaries, including "Olympic Century" (1994), the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

's official centennial history, and ''The Olympic Series'' (1998). Binns also launched, and ran for 10 years, the Olympic Television Archive Bureau. An organisation that was instrumental in retrieving and restoring all the official films of the Olympic Games right back to the

1936 Berlin Games The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

. Binns served as a producer on the 2024 production "Daley: Olympic Superstar" for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

- a documentary film which chronicles the life of

Daley Thompson Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, (born 30 July 1958) is an English former decathlete. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times. He was unbeaten in competit ...

including his legendary sporting achievements, but, for the first time, also reveals the personal struggles he faced to rise from the humblest of beginnings to become the ultimate Olympian. Away from the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, Binns also produced the official biographical documentary of

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...

, ''Tiger'' (2003), the official history of the

Wimbledon Championship The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

s ''Wimbledon'' (2001) and

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

's official history of football, ''The People's Game'' (1989).

Written work

Historical fiction

Binns has written 6

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

novels, four in the ''Making of England'' quartet, and two about the Great War. His first novel, ''Conquest'' – based on the events surrounding the

Norman invasion of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, French, Flemish, and Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

in 1066 – was published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

in 2011. It was soon followed by ''Crusade'' (released in April 2012), focusing on the Norman rule of England after 1066 and the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

to the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. Next came ''Anarchy'' (released in June 2013), which tells the story of England's first civil war between

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

and

Matilda Matilda or Mathilda may refer to: Animals * Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder * Mathilda (gastropod), ''Mathilda'' (gastropod), a genus of gastropods in the family Mathildidae * Matilda (horse) (1824–1 ...

. The quartet was completed with his latest novel ''Lionheart'' (released in November 2013), about the adventures of

Richard the Lionheart Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

and the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...

. His two Great War books are ''the Shadow of War'' about the catastrophic events of 1914 and its sequel ''the Darkness and the Thunder'' set in 1915. In February 2018, he released a book set in Belfast, during the Troubles, entitled ''Betrayal''.

Non-fiction

Binns' non-fiction writing credits include: ''The Greatest: Who is Britain’s Top Sports Star?'' (1996), ''The Second World War in Colour'' (1999) ''Britain at War in Colour'' (2000), ''America at War in Colour'' (2001), ''British Empire in Colour'' (2002), ''Barbarossa, The Bloodiest War in History'' (2021) and ''Japan’s War, Hirohito’s Holy War Against the West'' (2025)

Personal life

Binns has been a member of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club, owned and controlled by its members, on the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it had an all-male membership for ...

for over 30 years and the

Special Forces Club The Special Forces Club (SFC) is a private members' club located in Knightsbridge, London. Initially established in 1945 for former personnel of the Special Operations Executive, members of wartime resistance organisations, the Special Air Servi ...

for 10. He is also a member of the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the Victorian restoration, destructive 'restoration' of ancient bu ...

(SPAB) and the Vernacular Architecture Group. A lifelong supporter of

Burnley Football Club Burnley Football Club () is a professional football club based in Burnley, Lancashire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1882, Burnley were one of the first to beco ...

, Binns saw his first game in 1957, watching them play the '

Busby Babes The "Busby Babes" were the group of footballers, recruited and trained by Manchester United chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of the ...

' at

Turf Moor Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C., Burnley Football Club since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in Footbal ...

. He had the pleasure of seeing Burnley's greatest ever player,

Jimmy McIlroy James McIlroy (25 October 1931 – 20 August 2018) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, who played for Glentoran, Burnley, Stoke City and Oldham Athletic. He was regarded as one of Burnley's greatest players, having played 497 mat ...

in his prime and saw them win the 1959/60 League Title, their 1962 FA Cup Final against Spurs and their run in the 1960/61 European Cup. His home is in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England, where he lives with Lucy and twin boys, Charlie and Jack.

Bibliography

Historical fiction

''The Great War'' series

* ''Shadow of War'' (2014) * ''The Darkness and the Thunder'' (2015)

''Making of England'' quartet

* ''Lionheart'' (2013) * ''Anarchy'' (2013) * ''Crusade'' (2012) * ''Conquest'' (2011)

''Contemporary''

* '' Betrayal '' ''(2018'')

Non-fiction

* ''Japan’s War, Hirohito’s Holy War Against the West'' (2025) * ''Barbarossa and the Bloodiest War in History'' (2021) * ''British Empire in Colour'' (2002) * ''America at War in Colour'' (2001) * ''Britain at War in Colour'' (2000) * ''The Second World War in Colour'' (1999) * ''The Greatest: Who is Britain's Top Sports Star?'' (1996)

Filmography

* ''Daley Olympic Superstar ''(2024) * ''IOC/Alibaba 1924 Colourisation Project ''(2024) * ''Legends of Cricket ''(2022) * ''Dream the Dream ''(2019) * ''A Journey of Hope''(2017) * ''Chuan's Ocean'' (2016) * ''Mao: A Study in Tyranny'' (2015) * ''A Journey of Hope '' (2014) * ''Sport Under Threat '' (2012) * ''Seisen: the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire '' (2012) * ''Korea: The Forgotten War in Colour'' (2010) * ''Indochine: A People's War in Colour'' (2009) * ''Phil Daniels’ Football Matchday Madness'' (2008) * ''Catalyst for Change'' (2007) * ''Inside the Lions’ Den'' (2006) * ''What Price Fame'' (2006) * ''The Football League Show'' (2005) * ''Golazo'' (2005) * ''Chasing Churchill: In Search of My Grandfather'' (2005) * ''Tiger: The Authorised Biography'' (2004) * ''Japan's War'' (2003) * ''Churchill'' (2003) * ''The British Empire in Colour'' (2002) * ''The Queen Mother: Her Reign in Colour 1937–1953'' (2001) * ''Apollo'' (2002) * ''Britain at War in Colour'' (2001) * ''The Second World War in Colour'' (2000) * ''Inventions'' (1999) * ''Fabulous Fortunes'' (1998) * ''The Olympic Series'' (1998) * ''Century'' (1997) * ''McCormack – A Journey through Contemporary Sport'' (1996) * ''Mountain Airs'' (1995) * ''Olympic Century'' (1994) * ''Futbol Mundial'' (1993) * ''Guardians of the Flame'' (1992) * ''Blood, Sweat and Glory'' (1991) * ''Fangio'' (1991) * ''The People's Game'' (1991) * ''Simon Combes: An African Experience'' (1989) * ''Artworld'' (1989) * ''

'' (1987)

References

External links

Stewart Binns website
* *
Stewart Binns Business Page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binns, Stewart 1950 births Living people People from Burnley Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of the University of Sussex British documentary filmmakers British non-fiction writers English historical novelists 21st-century British novelists Writers from Lancaster, Lancashire Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages British male novelists 21st-century English male writers British male non-fiction writers