After coming down from university, he joined forces with two old UCS friends Ken Howard and Paul Overy with whom, between 1962 and 1963, he ran and edited four issues of a magazine, Axle Quarterly, publishing early work by Melvyn Bragg, Ray Gosling, Alexis Lykiard, Gillian Freeman and Simon Raven, among others.
At the same time, as a freelance, Blaikley wrote and narrated several BBC Radio programmes, including Writing for Children, in which he interviewed C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Enid Blyton.
[14][15][16] Among other performers for whom they wrote were Petula Clark, Phil Collins, Sacha Distel, Rolf Harris, Frankie Howerd (the theme song for his film Up Pompeii), Engelbert Humperdinck, Horst Jankowski, Eartha Kitt, Little Eva, Marmalade, The Herd, Lulu and Matthews Southern Comfort.
[19] Blaikley and Howard's concept album, Ark 2 (1969), performed by Flaming Youth,[20] drew the comment that Blaikley and Howard "have a wit, gaiety, dignity and melodic flair reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein...which suggest that pop is becoming the serious music – in the proper sense – of the age"[21] Blaikley and Howard wrote two West End musicals, Mardi Gras (Prince of Wales Theatre, 1976)[22] and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Wyndham's Theatre, 1984 – 1986), and two BBC TV musicals Orion (1977)(based on the earlier material of Ark 2) and Ain't Many Angels (1978).
– Memories, Reflections, Notes, and maintained his collaboration with Howard, with whom he was co-director of an active publishing company, Axle Music Ltd.[29] Blaikley's partner from 1978 to 2015 was the translator David Charles Harris (1954–2015), with whom he entered into a civil partnership in 2007.