McLeish, "the most widely respected and prolific translator of drama in Britain", translated all the surviving classical Greek plays, most plays by Henrik Ibsen and Georges Feydeau, and individual plays by Plautus, Molière, Alfred Jarry, August Strindberg, Ödön von Horváth and Eugène Marin Labiche.
He was educated at Bradford Grammar School, where he learnt French, Latin and Greek.
Successful productions included Deborah Warner's 1988 Electra for the RSC, Katie Mitchell's 1991 Women of Troy at the Gate, and Stephen Unwin's' 1996 Hedda Gabler for English Touring Theatre.
[1] He wrote several original plays and filmscripts, including Vice at the Vicarage (1978) for Frankie Howerd and Orpheus (1997) for Actors Touring Company.
He also wrote and edited a variety of general literary guides, several in collaboration with his wife.