Robert Banks Stewart (born Robert Stewart; 16 July 1931 – 14 January 2016) was a Scottish screenwriter, television producer and former journalist. Stewart contributed extensively to drama for the BBC and ITV, among other networks, for several decades. He is best known for creating and producing the series Shoestring (1979) and Bergerac (1981), which were both highly popular, with Stewart being nominated for a BAFTA for the former.
Stewart also contributed to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who, writing two stories which have retrospectively been considered among its best, and created the Zygons, which went on to be recurring antagonists in the programme. He also produced the television series Lovejoy (1986) and The Darling Buds of May (1991), with the latter garnering one of the highest ratings for a new series of British TV.
Stewart was born and raised in Edinburgh. Early in his life, he would begin writing, for which he would win a Burns essay prize. Leaving schooling at age 15, Stewart would contribute to a variety of news agencies prior to joining the television industry. Stewart died in 2016 due to cancer, aged 84.
Early life
Robert Stewart was born in Portobello, Edinburgh on 16 July 1931. His father was a printer and performed as a pierrot clown in end-of-the-pier shows, Stewart went to primary school at Moray House in Edinburgh. Stewart's first experience with show business came from his father, with Stewart being inspired by his pierrot work. He contributed stories to the local newspaper. He would also win a Burns essay prize for his writing.
Career
Early news career
Stewart left schooling at age 15, where he subsequently took up a job as an office boy at the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch. Following some time performing National Service, Stewart briefly joined as a sub-editor on The Scotsman He provided rewrites for several Pinewood Studios films, and would produce scripts for the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series, the 1959–1960 television series Interpol Calling, for which he served as its story editor,
After returning back to the United Kingdom, he would assume story editor and writing credits on a variety of television series, including Jason King, Van der Valk, Arthur of the Britons, The Sweeney, and The Legend of Robin Hood. Stewart would write two stories for the series: Terror of the Zygons (1975) and The Seeds of Doom (1976), both of which would go on to be among the show's most highly regarded stories. One of his creations, the Zygons, became recurring antagonists in the series. Though initially intending to write a third story for the series, he soon left to work with Thames TV, leaving the production team to write a replacement story. He would also end up creating the 1980 children's series Jukes of Piccadilly. He would later create the short-lived 1992 television series Moon and Son It had previously been a turned-down television pitch. He later published his memoirs, titled To Put You in the Picture, in 2015.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Television roles
|-
!scope="col" | Year
!scope="col" | Title
!scope="col" | Role
!scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref
|-
!scope="row" |1959-1960
|Interpol Calling
|Story editor
| rowspan="2" |
|-
!scope="row" |1965
|Undermind
|Creator
|
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="row" |1977
|Rooms
|Story editor
|
|-
!scope="row" |1978
|Armchair Thriller
|Story editor
|
|-
!scope="row" |1993
|Frank Stubbs Promotes
|Writer
|