Brian Branston was a BBC producer who in the early days of anthropology on British television collaborated with anthropologists on a number of occasions in preparing their footage for broadcast.
From the late 1950s, he “presented” – i.e. supervised the editing of – footage shot by Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf for the BBC television films, Land of the Gurkhas (1959) and Hill Tribes of the Deccan (1960). He later acted as the series producer of The Land of Dolpo (1965) and the executive producer of The Men Who Hunted Heads (1972), both also extensively based on Haimendorf’s footage.
Similarly, in a programme broadcast in January 1967, as indicated here, Branston acted as the producer of a television version of The Hadza (1966), directed by Sean Hudson and the anthropologist James Woodburn.
Branston also produced his own television programmes combining natural history with scenes of local life in Oceania, Amazonia and among the Inuit of Pelly Bay (Nunavut). He was also a writer of popular books about pagan religious beliefs in Saxon England and among the Vikings.