Airdate: Branson

Four-part HBO documentary series Branson premieres next week on Binge / FOX Docos.

Directed by Chris Smith (100 Foot Wave), the series profiles billionaire entrepreneur and Virgin founder Richard Branson.

Sixteen days before Richard Branson is scheduled to make a potentially historic flight as the first passenger to reach space in his own spacecraft in July 2021, the businessman sits down for a conversation with acclaimed filmmaker Chris Smith, in light of the risk that lies ahead. Smith ultimately takes us on an expansive and intimate 70-year journey, from Branson’s upbringing as the son of a spirited, tough-love mother in Britain, to his pursuits of extreme, personal daredevilry that serve both to grow his businesses’ brands and feed his insatiable, lifelong thirst for high-stakes adventure. With added insight from family members, business associates, and journalists, and illustrated by decades of archival and home video footage, Branson reveals the ups and downs of a man driven by risk taking in both his business and personal life, reflecting on the costs and rewards of his lifelong, relentless optimism and boundary-pushing.

After dropping out of school where he struggled with dyslexia, Branson began his entrepreneurial career as a 15-year-old publisher of a student magazine and went on to become a millionaire by the age of 22 with the booming success of Virgin Records. His launch of the airline Virgin Atlantic soon followed, along with a myriad of other Virgin branded businesses with varying levels of success, culminating in the launch of Virgin Galactic, his commercial spaceflight company in 2004. His record-breaking, transoceanic boat and balloon challenges, and now his crusade to bring customers to space, have all been positioned by Branson with the Virgin brand front and center. Branson remains a complex figure, committed to both philanthropic initiatives and his own bottom line.

Alongside exclusive interviews with Branson himself, the series features his colleagues and employees, as well as insights from both business journalists and industry experts. Also included are intimate interviews with his family, including revealing excerpts from conversations with Joan, his wife of 33 years, his sisters, his daughter Holly and son Sam, and an extensive personal archive of his late mother Eve, whose lively presence in Branson’s life continues to loom large.

Directed by Chris Smith; executive produced by Kate Noble. Executive producers Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller, senior producer Tina Nguyen.

New episodes weekly from Friday 2 December on Binge / 11pm on FOX Docos and available On Demand.