[6] In 1959, Bailey was engaged by the Australian theatrical producers J.C. Williamson Limited to play the part of Professor Henry Higgins in their production of the Lerner & Lowe musical My Fair Lady.

Bailey also had a helpful resemblance to Rex Harrison who had created the Higgins part in London and New York, on record and in the eventual film of the work.

Williamson's also imported a female lead Bunty Turner who likewise was not a name that would have itself drawn large audiences, but who had a striking resemblance to Julie Andrews who had created the role of Eliza Doolittle in New York and London and would be supplanted by Audrey Hepburn in the film.

Bailey later visited Australia to play Martin Lynch-Gibbon in A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch from a novel by the playwright, a role he had created in London and New York.

[citation needed] In 1983, he took over from Arthur Lowe (who had died) in the title role of Roy Clarke's BBC television sitcom Potter, about a busybody former sweet manufacturer with time on his hands following retirement.

[12][13] Other roles included suave civil servant Grainger in The Power Game (1966), the actor Gerald Maitland in an episode of Upstairs Downstairs ("The Hero's Farewell", 1974), and Neville Chamberlain in The Gathering Storm and Prime Minister Gresham in The Pallisers.

He also played Mr Justice Gerald Graves in Rumpole of the Bailey (1987 to 1992), and Hereward Fielding in the An Autumn Shroud episode of BBC's Dalziel and Pascoe series in 1996.

[14] Agatha Christie Catherine Aird Nevil Shute Ruth Rendell He was married to Patricia Mary Weekes from 6 September 1941 until her death on 2 October 1993.