Full Name Robin J. Bextor Role Film producer | Name Robin Bextor | |
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Occupation Film director, producer, author Children Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Bertie Bextor, Maisy Bextor, Dulce Bextor Movies Watch My Lips, Read My Lips Tour, Jackie Mason: A Night at the Opera Grandchildren Kit Jones, Sonny Jones, Ray Jones Similar People Sophie Ellis‑Bextor, Janet Ellis, Richard Jones, Jackie Mason | ||
Robin J. Bextor (born 1958) is an English film and television producer and director. He is the father of the dance-pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
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Early life and education
After education at Shene Grammar School in Richmond, Surrey, England, and at the University of Reading, he joined Thames Television and then the BBC, where he produced and directed documentaries, including the RTS award winning film on blind parents and entertainment programmes, including That's Life!. During this time he also made pop promotion videos for such bands as Bad Manners, Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant and Bucks Fizz.
Career
In the early 1990s, he became head of arts at TWI before joining the Man Alive group.
He directed Edward on Edward, a documentary in which Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex discussed King Edward VIII.
As director of programmes for Ardent, he steered the company to its first profit, but left to pursue other projects, including films with Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, and Paul McCartney.
He has since made programmes with his daughter, the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor; the French duo Air; The Damned; The Stranglers; and UB40. He directed the cult short film Norfolk Coast, featuring Susannah York and Jean Jacques Burnel. He is majority shareholder of the Soho post production business Vivid, responsible for programmes on the England Football team, Test cricket and Fulham FC as well as many arts subjects.}
He has won the Columbus ("Chris") award for The British Schindler, shown on ITV in 2005, a BAFTA and the New York Film Festival best documentary award.
Robin also directed his daughter's DVD Watch My Lips.
Bextor has also had a successful career as a writer, writing for newspapers and magazines and the book to accompany the TV series Crown and Country. The relationships built working with Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton over many years led to the publication of Paul McCartney Now & Then in 2004, and Eric Clapton Now & Then in 2006. He is also a director of Glyndebourne Productions in East Sussex specialising in films about opera.. He was a board member of the Brighton-based theatre company dreamthinkspeak.
In 2013 he directed a six-part TV series on London with specials on the London Underground, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. He also wrote The Story of the London Underground published that same year. (GU2) The following year he produced and directed Glyndebourne:the Untold History (90 mins) for BBC TV. He also wrote and directed a four-part music series The Sound of the 60's, and a book of the series published the same year.