Leslie Baily (14 December 1906 – 21 February 1976) was an English journalist, and a writer and producer for BBC Radio from 1924 to 1946.
[3] 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.
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.
It was billed as "a radio biography in six parts", and featured Carleton Hobbs as narrator, with D. A. Clarke-Smith as W. S. Gilbert and Ivan Samson as Arthur Sullivan; the music was performed by singers including Gwen Catley, Sylvia Cecil, Mary Jarred, Winifred Lawson, Charles Heslop and Richard Lewis, conducted by Stanford Robinson.
[7] In preparing the script Baily had many conversations with people who had known Gilbert and Sullivan, including Nancy McIntosh, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, and Newman Flower.