Leslie Megahey

Leslie Megahey (born 22 December 1944) is a British television producer, director and writer.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of Thomas Megahey (a minister) and Beatrice (née Walton), Leslie Megahey was educated at King Edward VI School in Lichfield. Early works for the BBC included Canvas: 7: Sunflowers: Van Gogh (1971), and Omnibus File: Thrillers and Crime Fiction (1972).

He was the editor of the BBC television documentary series Arena (1977-79; 1982-83); during his time on the series he divided it into Arena Theatre and Arena Art and Design, and Arena became less of a magazine-style programme and more a home for short, distinctive and stylish films about mainly British theatre and visual arts. During this period his programme Henry Moore Meets Leonardo (1978) was broadcast, in which the sculptor Henry Moore discussed Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomical drawings. His two-part Arena special The Orson Welles Story (1982) programmes won a 'Best Documentary' BAFTA in 1983.

When in 1979 Megahey was offered the opportunity to become the editor of the BBC’s arts documentary series Omnibus (1979-81; 1984-87) he accepted on the condition that he could make Schalcken the Painter, a fictional tale woven round the lives of actual historic figures Godfried Schalcken (Jeremy Clyde) and Gerrit Dou (Maurice Denham). Written and directed by Megahey, he shot it in a docudrama style, using a minimum of dialogue. It filled the slot taken in previous years by the BBC’s traditional A Ghost Story for Christmas, which had been cancelled in 1978, and aired on 23 December 1979. The television film was a 70-minute-long adaptation of Le Fanu's 1839 gothic tale Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter (sic). During his editorship Omnibus won a BAFTA in 1981.

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