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Leslie Megahey

Leslie Megahey

Directing

Biography

Leslie Megahey was 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. (Wikipedia)

Known For

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

"Who else but Whistler made us see that fog was beautiful or love the night?" asked Oscar Wilde, sometime friend of the irascible artist who is the subject of this Omnibus episode. James McNeill Whistler was a turn-of-the-century Bohemian, who escaped from his New England background to discover the louche life in Paris and London. His later style, impressionistic to the point of abstraction, pre-empted modernism by nearly 20 years. In reply to an impertinent judge who suggested he was charging 200 guineas for two days' work, Whistler replied: "No - I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime". James Runcie's film re-creates some of Whistler's most famous paintings, including the portrait of his mother, in studio tableaux. It also records many of the artist's celebrated run-ins with the critics of his day (he collected his attacks on the critics in a volume from which this film takes its title: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies).

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

1968Movie