Robert Banks Stewart: 1931 - 2016

In the numerous tomes chronicling British television over the past five decades, the name of Robert Banks Stewart invariably earns the epithet of the man who broke the mould of early popular TV thrillers - re-energising them for the screen rather than, as they had been, mainly derived from radio.

It was certainly true at the BBC, which he joined in the mid-Seventies to produce all-film series. Previously most BBC episodic dramas, other than costume classics, had been made on video tape with film inserts, with subsequent restrictions in locations and production values. 

They had made a false start on all-film with Target, and it was a moment when TV channels were being warned about excessive screen violence.  Although he was a highly successful writer who had written dozens of episodes in so-called action series, Stewart, when he was invited to create and produce a new series to replace Target, said he wasn’t interested in doing another straight cop show.

He argued that if the BBC was prepared to invest in more expensive film production (with potential overseas sales) why not try to match to American single character-based series such as The Rockford Files and Columbo?

Somewhat audaciously, considering it was the BBC, he came up with the idea of a private eye employed by one of the new commercial radio stations.  Working on the development with his friend, TV writer and West End playwright, Richard Harris, the result was Eddie Shoestring, a shambling but shrewd figure, played by a newcomer, Trevor Eve. 

The Shoestring stories were as varied and eccentric as its hero, always human and above all humorous, setting a new style and rhythm, with George Fenton’s theme music adding a distinctive touch.  The most telling element, however, was the setting – Bristol and the West Country.

Bill Cotton, then BBC1 controller, suggested it would be cheaper to use Slough as the home of the radio station and filming around there.  Stewart (a la Betjeman) rained ‘friendly bombs’ on Slough – and Bristol it was.  Thereafter, contemporary thriller series were regularly located away from London backstreets and suburbs, and the viewers loved them.

Shoestring was a smash hit, for two years dominating Sunday night viewing, gaining the number one position in the weekly national TV ratings long before soap operas took hold, and was nominated for a Bafta award, the first detective thriller to be nominated in the Academy’s TV drama series category.  Stewart would repeat the trick many times, but with Shoestring he was on his way to becoming one of the most ground-breaking writer-producers in television.

Born in Edinburgh, the son of a master printer, who was also a part-time end-of-the-pier Pierrot, Robert Banks Stewart’s path to prominence in his television career was eclectic, to say the least.

Bergerac beginnings

After Trevor Eve elected not to do a third series of Shoestring, Stewart was asked by the BBC to suggest a replacement.  He had long had an idea to use, as a location, the island of Jersey, the tax-haven tucked close to France. And so he created Bergerac, and an oufit called the Bureau des Etrangers although it was about police work, D/Sgt Jim Bergerac, played by John Nettles, was a slightly flawed, if redeemed, character – a divorced loner, a recovering alcoholic, who liked to drive his own vintage sports car around the island while solving a whole range of crime thrillers. 

It was an instant success for the BBC, again a Sunday night number one, and ran for ten years. Many up and coming young film directors worked on Bergerac, as some had done on Shoestring.  A few of them ended up in Hollywood, always a source of great satisfaction for Stewart.  They included, notably, Martin Campbell, director of several major movies, two of them James Bonds.  Stewart was also delighted to have helped to start the screen careers of outstanding actresses like Greta Scaachi, Celia Imrie and Joanne Whalley.

Then came probably one of the biggest successes of his career – the opening series of H.E. Bates’, The Darling Buds of May, which gained one of the highest ratings for a new series in the history of British TV. As both producer and one of the adapters of Bates’ novels, he gave the final casting vote for Catherine Zeta-Jones to play David Jason’s (Pop Larkin’s) daughter, Mariette, in the series. 

Wryly, Stewart often said that choosing her, with complete confidence in her talent, putting her on her way to a stellar career, was probably what he would best be remembered for. 

A somewhat modest view of his outstanding overall contribution to television.

Robert Banks Stewart, died 14 January 2016 , born 16 July 1931, is survived by his three sons from his second marriage, and a daughter from his first.