Robert Banks Stewart

Robert Banks 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 producing the shows Shoestring (1979) and Bergerac (1981), which were both highly popular television series, with Stewart being nominated for a BAFTA for the former. He also contributed to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who, writing and creating two stories for the show which have retrospectively been considered among its best. For the series, he would also create the Zygons, who would go on to be recurring antagonists in the programme. Later in life, he would also produce the television series Lovejoy (1986) and The Darling Buds of May (1991), with the latter proving to be highly popular, 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 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 at the age of 84 due to cancer.