Alex Bescoby is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer and presenter from Manchester, UK, with a love of history, travel and storytelling. A Cambridge University history and politics graduate, he has written for BBC News, the Telegraph, National Geographic and Lonely Planet. His long- and short-form films have been shown by global broadcasters including BBC, All4, History, Discovery & Canal+.
Alex co-founded independent production company Grammar Productions, to make innovative documentaries that delve deeper into history and how it affects the lives of people and societies around the world today.
In 2013, he began work on his debut documentary, We Were Kings. Telling the incredible true story of Burma’s lost royal family, it was the first winner of the Whicker’s World Foundation Funding Award, the biggest single documentary funding prize in the UK. Filmed through three seismic years in Burma’s history, it premiered at the British Library in 2017 and has since been broadcast all across the world. Follow this link to watch the documentary and related short features linked to the documentary.
Since then, Alex has continued to pursue filmmaking projects for major broadcasters that combine his passion for history and adventure. In 2019, Alex completed The Last Overland, crossing 23 countries in 111 days in a very badly behaved old Land Rover - his greatest adventure to date. On September 29th 2022, Alex’s debut book – The Last Overland – was released by Michael O’Mara. A 4x60’ documentary series of the same name is also on All4.