Raymond Edward Menmuir was a British-Australian director and producer. His career included producing 44 episodes of The Professionals and directing 12 episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs. He also produced an Australian version of The Professionals called Special Squad for the Ten Network in 1984.
Early life
Menmuir was born in Perth, Western Australia, as the eldest of four children to Edward Menmuir and his wife Dorothy. His father ensured Menmuir had a good education, at Wesley College.
Work
His first employment was as a reporter at the Perth Daily News, but he then transferred to the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a radio producer. 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 Marcel Pagnol's Cesar, Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves, and Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes are Flying. This came out when he was soon directing dramas at the ABC's television drama department in Sydney. He directed the second play to be televised, J.B. Priestly's The Rose and Crown written specifically for television, and the first play from the new Gore Hill complex, Barbara Vernon's The Multi-Coloured Umbrella. He originally directed all sorts of programs for the ABC but in October 1959 was assigned to drama full time. 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. 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. His productions included: Z Cars, The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Corridors of Power, and The Duchess of Duke Street. In 1974 he directed the adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey story The Nine Tailors for the BBC. In 1978, he was offered full freedom of control as producer for London Weekend Television's show, The Professionals. During several returns to Australia, he was responsible for Ballad for One Gun , and Special Squad and the movie Fortress for Crawford Productions.
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, to Heidi and they had a daughter Anna, and to Jennifer with whom he had a daughter Fiona and son Iain. He then had a partner, Wendy Blacklock.
