--- name: "Peter Baynham" canonical: "https://film.one/person/peter-baynham" fi1m_id: "peter-baynham" imdb_id: "nm0063165" tmdb_id: 6732 wikidata_id: "Q7172726" roles: ["Writer","Producer"] born: "28 June 1963" reviewed_on_fi1m: 9 average_fi1m_score: 66 average_as: "writer" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-22T02:37:10.934009+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Peter Baynham ## Identity Peter Baynham - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/peter-baynham - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** peter-baynham - **IMDb ID:** nm0063165 - **TMDB ID:** 6732 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7172726 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Baynham, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7172726, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0063165/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6732 Writer and producer. Born 28 June 1963 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer - **Born:** 28 June 1963, Cardiff, Wales, UK - **Active:** 1994–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 9: 4 acting, 4 writing, 1 other - **Frequently works with:** [Anthony Hines](https://film.one/person/anthony-hines.md), [Sacha Baron Cohen](https://film.one/person/sacha-baron-cohen.md), [Armando Iannucci](https://film.one/person/armando-iannucci.md), [Dan Mazer](https://film.one/person/dan-mazer.md), [Steve Coogan](https://film.one/person/steve-coogan.md), [Adam Tandy](https://film.one/person/adam-tandy.md), [Amelia Bullmore](https://film.one/person/amelia-bullmore.md), [Dan Swimer](https://film.one/person/dan-swimer.md) - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as writer, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 87 (3), 2000s 75 (3), 2010s 68 (2), 2020s 71 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 66 to 63 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 2 under 60 - **Genres:** Comedy 4, Animation 2, Family 2, Fantasy 1, Science Fiction 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $820m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Baynham, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7172726, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0063165/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6732 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan*](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md) (81) - **Disney+:** [*Ron's Gone Wrong*](https://film.one/film/rons-gone-wrong.md) (71) - **The Roku Channel:** [*Hotel Transylvania*](https://film.one/film/hotel-transylvania.md) (54) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Peter Baynham > Baynham writes men who do not know they are the joke, then builds them a whole world to be wrong in. Alan Partridge at the Linton Travel Tavern is his finest work; Borat is the loudest, and not quite the best. A man in a roadside hotel insists it is equidistant between Norwich and London. He has lost his chat show, his wife and his house, and kept his opinions. That is the whole of *I'm Alan Partridge* (1997), and it is the clearest place to see what Peter Baynham does. Credits on collaborative comedy are hard to pick apart, and we will not pretend to know which line is his. What we can say is that the character arrived as a news presenter and left as a fully built human being with a hotel, a radio slot and a day to fill, and Baynham, with Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, was one of the three people who built him. He came to it late and sideways. Five years in the Merchant Navy, then London in 1987, stand-up and radio sketches, and the circle around Iannucci and Chris Morris that produced *The Day Today* (1994) and *Big Train* (1998). Those shows share a straight face: the joke is played as news or as documentary, and the audience is left to notice. From 2005 he took the same habit to Sacha Baron Cohen, first on *Borat* (2006) and later *Borat Subsequent Moviefilm* (2020). In between there were animated features with Sarah Smith, including *Arthur Christmas* (2011), a return to Alan in *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013), and one series, *I Am Not an Animal* (2004), that the BBC gave little support. We have not reviewed those and will not judge them here. *Borat* is credited to Baynham, Anthony Hines, Cohen and Dan Mazer, and the surprise is how carefully it is organised under the pretence of a camera pointed at whatever happened. Real people supply the sharpest moments, but someone decided where Borat stands and what he says first, and that is writing. We laughed at the running of the Jew and then felt ashamed of ourselves, because the character's innocence gets the laugh out before the hatred registers, and that timing is the film's nastiest and best trick. The obscenity is more reliable than the politics, and some of the embarrassment is cheaply bought, but the machinery holds. The Partridge series is the better work, and the one we would send a stranger to. It is as funny as British television gets and sadder than it needs to be, and the sadness is the point: a man broadcasting to nobody in the small hours, filling a day. The second series is louder and lesser, as if everyone had noticed the sadness and decided to shout over it. Baynham has called writing the first "my happiest, most fun writing experience ever really", and it shows. He has spent a career writing for other people's faces, chiefly Coogan's and Baron Cohen's, and his is the name on the credits that fewer people read. That suits the work. The men he writes never notice the camera, and the man who writes them has not made much fuss about it either. ## Biography Peter Baynham is a Welsh screenwriter, stand-up comedian and performer. Born in Cardiff in 1963, he served in the British Merchant Navy after leaving school before pursuing a career in comedy, beginning with stand-up and moving into writing and performing for radio and television. His television work includes writing for *I'm Alan Partridge* (1997) with Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, and for series such as *The Day Today*, *Brass Eye* and *Jam* with Chris Morris. He created the animated series *I Am Not an Animal* (2004). In film, Baynham has collaborated with Sacha Baron Cohen on *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2006), *Brüno* (2009), *Grimsby* (2016) and *Borat Subsequent Moviefilm* (2020). Other credits include *Arthur Christmas* (2011), *Hotel Transylvania* (2012), *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013) and *Ron's Gone Wrong* (2021). He received Academy Award nominations for the two Borat films. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (9) ### Performed in (4) - *Arthur Christmas* (2011), Fi1m 82, as Elf (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/arthur-christmas.md) - *Brass Eye* (1997), Fi1m 86, as Welsh Naval Officer — [page](https://film.one/tv/brass-eye.md) - *I'm Alan Partridge* (1997), Fi1m 88, as Hugh Morris — [page](https://film.one/tv/im-alan-partridge.md) - *The Day Today* (1994), Fi1m 86, as Colin Poppshed — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-day-today.md) ### Wrote (4) — the average rests on these - *Ron's Gone Wrong* (2021), Fi1m 71, Executive Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/rons-gone-wrong.md) - *Hotel Transylvania* (2012), Fi1m 54, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/hotel-transylvania.md) - *Brüno* (2009), Fi1m 58, Associate Producer, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/bruno.md) - *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2006), Fi1m 81, Story, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Shaun of the Dead* (2004), Fi1m 85, as Man in Street (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-of-the-dead.md) ## Complete filmography (32) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Ali G: Who Iz I?* (2026), Producer, Screenplay, Story — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/film/ali-g-who-iz-i.md) - *Ron's Gone Wrong* (2021), Executive Producer, Writer — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/rons-gone-wrong.md) - *Borat: VHS Cassette of Material Deemed "Sub-Acceptable" by Kazakhstan Ministry of Censorship and Circumcision* (2021), Writer, Executive Producer - *Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2020), Screenplay, Executive Producer - *Bob Monkhouse: The Last Stand* (2016), Actor - *Grimsby* (2016), as Traffic Warden · Screenplay, Producer - *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013), Writer, Executive Producer - *Bright Day* (2012), as Daddy - *Hotel Transylvania* (2012), Screenplay — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/hotel-transylvania.md) - *The Dictator* (2012), Executive Producer - *Arthur Christmas* (2011), as Elf (voice) · Screenplay, Co-Executive Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/arthur-christmas.md) - *Arthur* (2011), Screenplay - *Brüno* (2009), Story, Associate Producer — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/bruno.md) - *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2006), Screenplay, Story — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md) - *I Am Not an Animal* (2004), series, Writer, Director, Creator - *Shaun of the Dead* (2004), as Man in Street (uncredited) — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-of-the-dead.md) - *Anglian Lives: Alan Partridge* (2003), as Ray Woollard · Writer, Associate Producer - *Cruise of the Gods* (2002), Writer - *Combat Sheep* (2001), Writer - *The Junkies* (2001), as Jackie - *Jam* (2000), series, Writer - *Big Train* (1998), series, Writer - *Still Crazy* (1998), as Kevin - *Bob and Margaret* (1998), series, Actor - *I'm Alan Partridge* (1997), series, as Hugh Morris · Writer, Producer, Creator — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/im-alan-partridge.md) - *Introducing Tony Ferrino: Who and Why? A Quest* (1997), as Ross Woollard - *Brass Eye* (1997), series, as Sven Yabbsley, Welsh Naval Officer, Additional Writing — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/brass-eye.md) - *Lee and Herring Live* (1996), as Peter - *The Saturday Night Armistice* (1995), series, Writer - *Fist of Fun* (1995), series, Writer - *The Day Today* (1994), series, as Colin Poppshed · Writer — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-day-today.md) - *The Bill* (1984), series, as Mickey Tulliver ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 2021: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Borat Subsequent Moviefilm* - 2007: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *Borat* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/peter-baynham