Russell Barnes

Russell Barnes (born 1968) is a British television producer and director, known primarily for documentaries about science and contemporary history. He was educated at Bedford Modern School[1] and studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Russell Barnes worked as a researcher on cult youth programmes A Stab in the Dark and The Word, and also Channel 4’s television review show, Right to Reply.

In 2002, he directed Empire, a revisionist account of British colonial history presented by the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson. A sequel about US power, American Colossus, followed in 2004.

In 2004 Russell Barnes produced Churchill's Forgotten Years, written and presented by the Cambridge University historian David Reynolds. Barnes and Reynolds went on to collaborate on a series of further feature-length history documentaries for the BBC, including The Improbable Mr Attlee, Summits and Armistice, which charted the final month of the First World War from the German perspective and received special commendation from the jury at the 2009 Grierson Awards ceremony. In 2011, they produced World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel, a new profile of Josef Stalin, which was shortlisted in the Best Historical Documentary category of the 2012 Grierson Awards.[2] This was followed in 2012 by World War Two: 1942 and Hitler’s Soft Underbelly which argued that the war in the Mediterranean became a dark obsession for Winston Churchill, and in 2015, World War Two: 1945 and the Wheelchair President, examined the impact of Franklin Rooselvelt's failing health and marriage on his war leadership.[3][4] Long Shadow, which explored the legacy and meaning of the First World War as part of the BBC's centenary season of programming, was broadcast on BBC2 in 2014.[5] The series, which explored the legacy and meaning of the First World War as part of the BBC's centenary season of programming, received widespread and favourable press coverage and reviews.[6][7]

Russell Barnes started working with the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 2005, directing the series The Root of All Evil? and The Enemies of Reason, which attracted controversy for their robust advocacy of atheism and rationalist principles.[8] Barnes and Dawkins' next series The Genius of Charles Darwin, marking the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species in 2008, won Best Documentary series at the 2009 Broadcast Awards.

Russell Barnes has produced several films that explore the history of communications technology including, in 2000, How the Victorians Wired the World and Hackers in Wonderland. In 2009 he was series producer of The Virtual Revolution, a BBC2 history of the World Wide Web presented by Aleks Krotoski. The series won the 2010 International Digital Emmy Award and the 2010 BAFTA New Media Award.[9]

In 2010 Barnes founded the independent production company ClearStory Ltd with Molly Milton, where he has produced projects including Richard Dawkins series Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life, the award-winning observational documentary Gypsy Blood[10] and the controversial studio format Sex Box for Channel 4.[11][12][13][14][15]

In 2017, Russell Barnes directed the comedian Harry Hill in Damien Hirst by Harry Hill,[16][17] an affectionate parody of an arts documentary about the conceptual artist Damien Hirst. The film was broadcast by Sky Arts in its Passions strand to coincide with Hirst's controversial Venice Biennale show Treasure of the Wreck of the Unbelievable.[18][19] Russell Barnes also directed the well-received arts series Utopia: In Search of the Dream,[20][21][22][23] in which semiotician Professor Richard Clay explored different visions of utopia with notable interviewees including Norman Foster, Sid Meier and Katherine Maher.[24]

Russell Barnes is active in Directors UK, sitting on the organisation's distribution committee.

References
  1. Bedford Modern School, by Andrew Underwood (1981); updated (2010)
  2. "The Grierson Trust". Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
  3. "World War Two: 1945 & the Wheelchair President – BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  4. "World War Two: 1945 and the Wheelchair President, BBC Four | The Arts Desk". www.theartsdesk.com. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  5. "Long Shadow – BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  6. "The Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph.
  7. "The Independent". Independent Online.
  8. Spencer, Neil (11 August 2007). "The Dawkins delusion: science good, the rest bad". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  9. "Virtual Revolution Wins a BAFTA".
  10. "Grierson Trust". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013.
  11. HuffPost http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/30/sex-box-series-channel-4_n_8430836.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. "ABC News".
  13. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/29/sex-box-is-inspirational. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. "The Daily Beast".
  15. "The Hollywood Reporter".
  16. "Passions". Sky. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  17. "Passions – S1 – Episode 5: Damien Hirst by Harry Hill". Radio Times. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  18. Cumming, Laura (16 April 2017). "Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable review – beautiful and monstrous". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  19. Russeth, Andrew (8 May 2017). "A Disastrous Damien Hirst Show in Venice". ARTnews. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  20. "Utopia: In Search of the Dream – BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  21. Ferguson, Euan (13 August 2017). "The week in TV: Eden: Paradise Lost; Citizen Jane; Utopia: In Search of the Dream; Trust Me; Diana: In Her Own Words". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  22. "Utopia: In Search of the Dream, BBC Four review – the best of all possible documentaries?". theartsdesk.com. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  23. Whetstone, David (4 August 2017). "Newcastle prof hunts for Utopia". nechronicle. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  24. BBC (10 August 2017), Is Wikipedia a modern utopia? – Utopia: In Search of The Dream – BBC Four, retrieved 30 November 2017
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