Place of Birth: Sidcup, Kent

Background:
Brought up in a period before television sets were common, the principal entertainment for the family were weekly visits to the local cinema. Méheux soon became an ardent film fan and from as early as ten years old, knew he wanted to be the man who sat on the camera crane as it swooped over costumed extras.

Leaving school just before his 16th birthday, Méheux answered a classified ad for a clerk in the sales department of M-G-M Film Distributors and whilst there, formed a lifelong friendship with two other film fanatics. Most Sundays, they could be found in a darkened room screening 16mm rented copies of favourite films. Later on, they pooled their resources and acquired a second hand 16mm Bolex camera and began scripting and shooting their own films with Méheux as cameraman. During these formative years, Méheux learned a great deal about exposure, camera operating and film stocks, as well as editing.

After working as a projectionist in a preview theatre and then a West End cinema, Méheux applied to join a BBC Television Film Training course. By the time the interview came round, the training course was full but, based on his experience, the BBC offered Méheux a job as a studio projectionist.

During this time, together with his friends, Méheux photographed and edited a 30 minute short film with part sponsorship from the British Film Institute and after-hours technical help from the BBC. The film became a minor hit at obscure film festivals and this gained him a place on the next Film Training course in 1964. Six months later, while still a trainee, he was pulling focus for Dick Bush after his assistant went down with gastric flu. He was soon made-up to full assistant and during the following years, worked with many different cameramen with many different styles on both drama and documentary subjects.

In 1968, Méheux got his first chance to shoot film when the cameraman he was assisting, bowed out of a documentary about ‘pop’ music and the director had Méheux take over. He was subsequently sent to the "MAN ALIVE" unit as a ‘holiday relief’ cameraman and stayed for two years shooting some eighteen 50-minute "human" documentary films with the camera almost permanently attached to his shoulder. At the end of the first year, he was promoted to full cameraman. By the mid-70`s, Méheux had graduated to all-filmed television plays which had become very successful at the BBC.

Méheux says, “The experience gained at the BBC was priceless. One worked almost every day on many different projects in a variety of countries and situations. Every piece of original film transmitted by the BBC was produced in-house. You had to learn and shoot many different techniques: set lighting on the stage, exteriors at night, back and front projection, models, matte paintings, stop frame, high speed photography... It was a unique and valuable experience.”

At the end of 1976, having seen Méheux’s television work, Tony Simmons, a freelance director, approached him to be a cameraman/operator on a low budget feature requiring extensive use of a handheld camera and available light, both techniques with which he was experienced. After 13 years at the BBC he left to become freelance and shoot BLACK JOY, his first 35mm feature film and the official British entry at Cannes Film Festival in 1977. The producer of this film was Martin Campbell who was to have a definitive influence on his later career.