Leslie Baily

Leslie Baily (14 December 1906 – 21 February 1976) was an English journalist, and a writer and producer for BBC Radio from 1924 to 1946. He was known for his books about Gilbert and Sullivan and his BBC Radio Scrapbook programmes.

Life and career Baily was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and educated at the Friends' School, Sibford, near Banbury, and Cheltenham Grammar School. He joined the staff of The Yorkshire Evening News at Leeds, where he became the paper's wireless correspondent. From there, he joined the BBC, and was responsible for a succession of features, plays, adaptations and revues first in the Leeds and Manchester studios of the BBC and then in London. From the fourth Scrapbook, in March 1933, the programme was broadcast nationally. In December 1933 the Scrapbook concentrated on a single year – 1913 – with sound clips relating to "the world at work and play; the Volturno disaster; "Everybody's Doing It"; the Beecham Opera Season; "Pelissier Follies"; the Suffragettes; the Tango craze; Hindle Wakes; George Formby; Vesta Tilley; H. H. Asquith; Marie Lloyd; Ragtime; Pavlova, etc." Scrapbooks for other years followed in quick succession. From 1936 Baily and his co-producer Charles Brewer broadcast Star-Gazing, which alternated with the Scrapbooks; in each of these programmes, dubbed "radiobiographies", a popular stage or screen star reminisced about his or her career. Among the one-off programmes devised and presented by Baily was a "Farewell to Daly's", to mark the closure of Daly's Theatre. A series on famous music halls began in 1938.

During the Second World War Baily gave the Scrapbook series a new look as Everybody's Scrapbook, designed to provide a link with the Empire; the formula pleased Canada and Australia as much as Britain. The series was remade in 1949, with Charles Groves succeeding Robinson as conductor. Baily and his collaborators drew on the book for the script of the 1953 film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan. A reviewer later wrote, "Baily didn't hesitate to fictionalize parts of his book in order to make for a better story, and he doesn't hesitate in the film either. However, the film brilliantly conveys the spirit of what the G&S partnership was about."

Baily died aged 69 at his home in York.