Andrew Harries[1] OBE (born 7 April 1954) is chief executive and co-founder of Left Bank Pictures, a UK based production company formed in 2007.

The Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy winning series, written by Peter Morgan, has been very well received by critics and audiences.

[9][10][11] He grew up aspiring to be a war correspondent in Vietnam, or an investigative journalist; his idols were Harold Evans, Jon Swain and John Pilger.

[12] He left college at the age of 17 with poor A Level results and became a trainee reporter on the Peterborough Evening Telegraph newspaper.

The rest of the production crew were not ready to move on to the next news items, leaving Harries standing in silence for several minutes.

Harries recalled in a 2007 interview that Steve Morrison, the producer of the bulletin, called him into his office and berated him, telling him he did not deserve to be on television and that he would no longer be reading the news.

[13] Pursuing his interest in investigative journalism, Harries worked as a researcher on the current affairs programme World in Action, where he met Paul Greengrass.

He directed the documentary series Africa in 1984[9] before beginning a collaboration with Paul Yule, with whom he made four films in Peru between 1985 and 1989—Martin Chambi and the Heirs of the Incas, Our God the Condor, Iquitos, and Mario Vargas Llosa: The Novelist Who Would Be President—and working on editions of The South Bank Show and Arena.

Ross invited Harries to direct a pilot for a chat show he and Alan Marke had developed that was based on Late Night with David Letterman.

With a development budget of £2,000, Harries sent Morgan on a research trip to Zimbabwe, taking a circuitous route that lasted for three days.

[18] The Edinburgh Fringe played an important role in Harries's early commissions at Granada; he was not fond of traditional styles of comedy and was always looking for alternative comedians.

[16] In 1994, after turning down an offer for "the number three position" at Channel 4 and extending his contract with Granada to become controller of entertainment and comedy, he commissioned The Mrs Merton Show from Aherne.

[22] It won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2002, which Harries collected with Bullen and Spencer Campbell.

Judd and Harries began developing Dark Ages—a sitcom set at the turn of the 2nd millennium—in 1997 but could not make it work with the writer at the time.

[20] In September 2000, Harries's portfolio was significantly expanded when he was appointed Granada's controller of drama, following the resignations of Sue Hogg and Simon Lewis.

Granada's chief executive Charles Allen was not keen on producing The Deal but Harries and John Whiston persuaded him otherwise.

[29] That same year Harries brought back the drama serial Prime Suspect, which had not been produced since the star Helen Mirren quit in 1995.

[30] In 2004, Harries was ranked number eleven on a list of the most powerful figures in British TV drama, compiled by industry experts for the Radio Times.

Peter Morgan was due to return as the writer, Stephen Frears was signed on as director and Harries suggested to Mirren that she play the Queen.

In an interview the month before The Queen was released he criticised the management of ITV for being deeply complacent and arrogant, and expressed disappointment that drama on the channel was not as good as it once was.

[20] The predictions came to fruition in May 2007 when Harries announced the formation of Left Bank Pictures, which BBC Worldwide immediately took a 25% share in.

[37] In 2009, Left Bank's first feature film, The Damned United (adapted by Peter Morgan from the David Peace novel) was released.

[43] The Crown is Left Bank's biggest project to date, the first American-British television series produced exclusively for Netflix.

[6] Left Bank's inception lead to Harries being listed in The Guardian's Media Top 100, making his entry at number 66.

[2] In December 2009, the Radio Times ranked him at number six in their "Faces of 2010" feature, a compilation of "the biggest names and the coming stars in the year ahead".

[3] Harries was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to film and television.

After producing a South Bank Show profile and The Ghosts of Oxford Street, Harries remained good friends with Malcolm McLaren, and spoke at his funeral in April 2010.