Russell Barnes (born 1968) is a British television producer and director, known primarily for documentaries about science and

contemporary history Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is ...

. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and studied history at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

. Russell Barnes worked as a researcher on cult youth programmes A Stab in the Dark and The Word, and also

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

’s television review show,

Right to Reply ''Right to Reply'' (sometimes called ''R2R'') is a British television series shown on Channel 4 from 1982 until 2001, which allowed viewers to voice their complaints or concerns about TV programmes. It featured reports, usually presented by a v ...

. In 2002, he directed ''Empire'', a revisionist account of British colonial history presented by the

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

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 , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, which was shortlisted in the Best Historical Documentary category of the 2012

Grierson Awards The Grierson Awards are awards set up by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, created to commemorate the life and work of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson. The inaugural Awards w ...

. 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 Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, 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. '' 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. The series, which explored the legacy and meaning of the

as part of the BBC's centenary season of programming, received widespread and favourable press coverage and reviews. Russell Barnes started working with the evolutionary biologist

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

in 2005, directing the series '' The Root of All Evil?'' and '' The Enemies of Reason'', which attracted controversy for their robust advocacy of

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

and rationalist principles. Barnes and Dawkins' next series ''

The Genius of Charles Darwin ''The Genius of Charles Darwin'' is a three-part television documentary, written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. It was first shown in August 2008 on Channel 4. It won Best TV Documentary Series 2008 at the British B ...

'', marking the 150th anniversary of ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'' 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 ''The Virtual Revolution'' is a British television documentary series and interactive web experience presented by Aleks Krotoski, which began airing on BBC Two on 30 January 2010. A co-production between the BBC and the Open University, the se ...

'', a BBC2 history of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

presented by

Aleks Krotoski Aleksandra Krystyna Theresa Krotoski (born October 22, 1974) is a broadcaster, journalist and social psychologist based in the United States who writes and broadcasts about technology and interactivity. She currently presents the BBC Radio 4 ser ...

. The series won the 2010 International Digital Emmy Award and the 2010 BAFTA New Media Award. 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 ''Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life'' is a three-part television documentary presented by Richard Dawkins which explores what reason and science might offer in major events of human lives. He argues that ideas about the soul and the afterlife ...

, the award-winning observational documentary '' Gypsy Blood'' and the controversial studio format

Sex Box ''Sex Box'' is a British television series. The first series was hosted by Mariella Frostrup. The series was produced by independent production company Clearstory and broadcast on Channel 4. The show's premise centres upon the idea that couple ...

for

. Barnes was featured in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

in 2021 about producers’ experiences of making risky television like Sex Box In 2017, Russell Barnes directed the comedian Harry Hill in Damien Hirst by Harry Hill, 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 The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

show Treasure of the Wreck of the Unbelievable. Russell Barnes also directed the well-received arts series Utopia: In Search of the Dream, in which semiotician Professor Richard Clay explored different visions of

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

with notable interviewees including Norman Foster,

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...

and

Katherine Maher Katherine Roberts Maher (; born April 18, 1983) is a former chief executive officer and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Maher worked for UNICEF, the National Democratic Institu ...

. Richard Clay and Russell Barnes collaborated again in 2019 on the BBC4 documentary Viral: Art of the Meme, which explored meme culture on the internet and featured interviews with

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

meme librarian

Amanda Brennan Amanda Brennan is the former Head of Editorial at Tumblr and is known as the "meme librarian." At Tumblr, she sorted through site's content and cataloged trends. She began her career at Know Your Meme where she gained her nickname. Due to her his ...

and Tom Walker (aka

Jonathan Pie Jonathan Pie is a fictional comedic character portrayed by British comedian Tom Walker. Written by Walker and Irish comedian Andrew Doyle, Pie is a political correspondent who rants angrily about British, American, and Australian politics, giv ...

) among others. Russell Barnes produced the eight part BBC2 series Art That Made Us, which was released to critical acclaim in April 2022 and shortlisted for several awards. The series explored how moments of historic crisis spurred creativity in the British Isles.{{Cite web, url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/05/20/british-culture-bbc-tv-series-art-that-made-us Barnes directed the second episode and co-directed the third episode, which featured artists, actors and thinkers of today such as

Simon Armitage Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...

Sarah Maple Sarah Maple is a British visual artist. She was recognised for her work after being awarded the "New Sensations" prize. Early life and education Maple was born in 1985 to a Kenyan Muslim mother and British father. In 2003, she went through a ...

, Chris Levine,

Morfydd Clark Morfydd Clark (born ) is a Welsh actress. She is best known for her role as Galadriel in the Amazon Prime fantasy series '' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'' (2022–). She received a number of accolades for her performance in the film ...

, Phoebe Boswell and Shaun Leane encountering pivotal art of the past. Russell Barnes is active in

Directors UK Directors UK (previously DPRS) is the professional association for British directors working in the audiovisual sector, with over 4,500 members. The organisation is both a collective management organisation for the distribution of secondary rights ...

, sitting on the organisation's distribution committee.

References

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External links

* {{IMDb name, 1645962 {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Russell 1968 births British television producers Living people People educated at Bedford Modern School British documentary filmmakers