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 (1958)
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. Menmuir returned to Australia in 1963 to direct
Ballad for One Gun and
The Right Thing. 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 (1963) (about Ned Kelly), and
Special Squad and the movie
Fortress for
Crawford Productions. ==Personal life==