Fifteen years
in the making
A feature documentary about the life and career of Ken Buchanan — world lightweight champion, 1970–1972 — told in his own words, in his own city.
A story over a pint
Jamie Steedman hears about his father’s friend — an amateur boxer who fought Ken Buchanan in the 1950s. He buys Buchanan’s autobiography and reads it cover to cover.
The interview begins
A meeting is arranged. There is no plan to make a film — until there is. Jamie structures a feature-length interview and shooting starts.
Back to the beginning
A year of fly-on-the-wall filming, taking Ken to the places of his childhood and capturing his reactions to them.
The Traverse Theatre
A private red-carpet screening in Edinburgh. Ken Buchanan attends and gives a talk.
Shelved
Archive licensing costs put a general release out of reach. No investor comes forward. The film goes into the background — but is never given up on.
Two losses
The sudden death of Jamie’s father Ricky, the film’s biggest supporter, and a year later his older brother, at 46. If you want to do something in life, do it now.
Rebuilt from scratch
The unobtainable archive is stripped out and replaced with original illustration and animation. AJAMAX Productions come on board as distributor.
World premiere
A full house at Cineworld Fountainpark, Edinburgh, followed by a live Q&A.
In Vue cinemas
The film opens in selected Vue cinemas across the UK.
Worldwide
An international release across thirteen streaming and broadcast platforms, from 14 September 2026.
The long
way round
The Boxer from Somewhere Else is a feature documentary film fifteen years in the making, about the life and career of Ken Buchanan. The concept came from Jamie Steedman, a film professional from the same city as Buchanan — Edinburgh. Jamie was talking to his father one day, who was telling a story about his friend who owned an infamous pub in the city. Through this story he learned he was an amateur boxer who fought Ken Buchanan in the 1950s.
Jamie became intrigued by who Ken Buchanan was, so he bought his autobiography and read it from cover to cover very quickly. He was captivated by Buchanan’s story and managed to persuade his father to set up a meeting with Ken. There was no intention to make a film initially, but after meeting Buchanan — where he relayed tales from his life — the idea came to capture this yet untold story on film in a cinematic, feature film format.
Buchanan agreed to do it and later that year, after Jamie structured a feature-length interview, the shooting began. Over the following year Jamie filmed Ken fly-on-the-wall documentary style, taking him to places from throughout his childhood and capturing his emotional reactions to it. In 2012 the film was complete, and a private, red carpet event was organised and sponsored at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in March 2012, to which Ken Buchanan came along and did a talk.
From here, the film was unable to go on general release due to production costs including certain archive footage licences, for which Jamie Steedman was unable to secure enough interest from investors or film partners to take the project forward.
After many years of trying, Jamie eventually put the film into the background but never gave up hope. Then one day in the summer of 2022 his world was rocked by the sudden death of his father from a stroke. Jamie’s father Ricky had been his biggest supporter of the film, and this was a major blow — to know that he would never see the film released. Then a year later, a month before Jamie’s wedding, his older brother, who he looked up to in a huge way, suddenly passed away after going out for a run on a Saturday morning at the young age of 46.
Jamie started to think that if you want to do something in life you should just do it, because tomorrow could be the last day of your life. He set about removing the archive footage that was unobtainable and replacing it with his own illustrations and animation. Then in 2023, after many years, finally a distributor — AJAMAX Productions — saw the film and believed in the project as much as Jamie did all along.
Jamie
Steedman
Ken Buchanan’s life is one of extraordinary triumphs and quiet tragedies. He was a world champion, a national hero, and a boxer whose technical brilliance defined an era. And yet, despite everything he accomplished, his legacy has too often been overlooked. That tension — between glory and obscurity — is what drew me to tell his story.
With The Boxer from Somewhere Else: The Ken Buchanan Story, I wanted to go beyond a conventional sports documentary. My aim was to craft a portrait of a man, not just a fighter. Through archival footage, animation, intimate interviews, and cinematic storytelling, I set out to reveal both the grace of his artistry in the ring and the humanity of his struggles outside it.
As a Scottish filmmaker, this project holds particular meaning for me. Ken’s journey represents not just an individual career but something broader about how we celebrate, and sometimes forget, our heroes. His life reflects the pride, grit, and resilience of a culture — but also the fragility of memory.
This film is my attempt to preserve Ken’s story for a new generation, to reframe him not simply as a great boxer but as a human being whose courage extended far beyond the ropes. I hope audiences leave the film with a renewed respect for Ken Buchanan — inspired by his brilliance, moved by his battles, and reminded of the responsibility we all share in remembering the people who shaped our history.
Watch
Trailers