Raymond Menmuir

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Raymond Menmuir
Born
Raymond Edward Menmuir

30 September 1930
Perth, Western Australia
, Australia
Died26 March 2016 (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Television director, television producer

Raymond Edward Menmuir (10 September 1930 – 26 March 2016) was a British-Australian director and producer.

Ten Network in 1984.[3]

Early life

Menmuir was born in

Wesley College
.

Work

His first employment was as a reporter at the

He was deeply impressed by European culture, by seeing various films at the 1953 Festival of the Arts in Perth, and then took artistic inspiration from various films including

Gore Hill complex, Barbara Vernon's The Multi-Coloured Umbrella.[5] Annette Andre recalled him as "a good director, he knew what he was doing."[6]

He originally directed all sorts of programs for the ABC but in October 1959 was assigned to drama full time.[7]

Probably his greatest achievement in these years was the 5 October 1960 live production in prime time of the two-hour epic

Shakespeare play, The Life and Death of King Richard II, using all three studios at Gore Hill.[5]

In 1961, Menmuir and his then wife Heidi moved to London. Menmuir directed for stage Alan Seymour's play, The One Day of the Year at Theatre Royal Stratford East, which started his association with many production venues.[8]

His productions included:

Z Cars, The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Corridors of Power, and The Duchess of Duke Street.[9] In 1974 he directed the adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey story The Nine Tailors for the BBC.[10]

In 1978, he was offered full freedom of control as producer for London Weekend Television's show, The Professionals.[5]

During several returns to Australia, he was responsible for Ballad for One Gun (1963) (about Ned Kelly), and Special Squad and the movie Fortress for Crawford Productions.[11]

Personal life

In the UK, Menmuir lived in rural Buckinghamshire.

In his later years, Menmuir settled in Australia at Mirrabooka on the western side of Lake Macquarie

Menmuir was married twice. He and his first wife, Heidi (née Isenmann) had a daughter, Anna. He had a daughter, Fiona, and a son, Ian with his second wife, Jennifer (née Cooper) (d. 2010). His partner after this time was the actor and entrepreneur Wendy Blacklock.[12]

Select Credits

References

  1. .
  2. ^ "Raymond Menmuir | TV, Documentary and Other Appearances". AllMovie.
  3. ^ Cribb, Tim (19 August 1984). "Crawford's Cops Return". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  4. – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b c "Obituary: Raymond Menmuir, Australian TV producer". www.scotsman.com. 17 June 2016.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (29 August 2020). "Annette Andre: My Brilliant Early Australian Career". Filmink.
  7. ^ "To Concentrate on TV Drama". The Age. 15 October 1959. p. 26.
  8. ^ Gilbert, W. Stephen (1 April 2015). "Alan Seymour obituary". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  9. ^ "Raymond Menmuir". BFI. Archived from the original on 15 August 2019.
  10. ^ "The Nine Tailors Part 1 (1974)". BFI. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019.
  11. ^ "Fortress (1985) - Arch Nicholson | Cast and Crew". AllMovie.
  12. Sydney Morning Herald
    , 8 June 2016

External links