Cyril Godfrey Baseley (2 October 1904 – 2 February 1997), credited as Godfrey Basely, was a

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dire ...

famous for being the creator of the

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...

''.

Early life

Cyril Godfrey Baseley was born at The Square,

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove district in northeast Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow. The Lickey Hills Country Park is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the northwest. It is south of Birm ...

in Worcestershire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, son of master butcher Walter Ernest Baseley and Mary Ellen, née Court. He was educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The scho ...

, York. Before creating ''The Archers'', he had previous experience in refashioning radio programmes about

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

, mainly for the Midland region.

The Archers

Inspiration came from another radio programme at the time: '' Dick Barton - Special Agent'' he decided to create a farming show with a narrative. The idea came from a suggestion made to him by Henry Burtt of Dowsby Hall near

Rippingale Rippingale is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 929 at the 2011 census. The village is situated on the A15 road, about north from Bourne. Rippingale ...

, a farmer he had interviewed in Lincolnshire. Baseley seems to have modelled Dan and Phil Archer on Burtt and his son Stephen.

Lincolnshire Echo The ''Lincolnshire Echo'' is a weekly British regional newspaper for Lincolnshire, whose first edition was on Tuesday 31 January 1893, and is published every Thursday. It is owned by Reach PLC and it is distributed throughout the county. The ...

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Baseley had tried to write the story but later threw one away. This was saved by his secretary but he threw it away again and engaged two of the ''Dick Barton'' writers: Edward J. Mason, Ted Mason and

Geoffrey Webb Geoffrey Fairbank Webb CBE (9 May 1898 – 17 July 1970) was a British art historian, Slade Professor of Fine Art and head of the Monuments and Fine Arts section of the Allied Control Commission during World War II. Early life Webb was born in ...

. After telling him some detail of the characters, Mason and Webb wrote the first ''Archers'' script. The pilot programme was broadcast to the

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

Whit Monday Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday, also known as Monday of the Holy Spirit, is the holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast in the Christian liturgical calendar. It is moveable because it is determined by the date of Easter. In ...

, 1950, and was broadcast across the UK on the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

on 1 January 1951. In the late 1960s Baseley took a part in ''The Archers'' playing the part of

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Winstanley, although billed in the

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

under a pseudonym. Baseley was replaced as script editor for ''

'' in 1972. His successor, Malcolm Lynch, had previously worked as a script writer for the television drama series, ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based ...

''. Baseley was critical of some of his successors. Godfrey Baseley died at

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in th ...

on 2 February 1997, aged 92

References

External links

uk.media.radio.archers History of ''The Archers''
British radio people The Archers 1904 births 1997 deaths People educated at Bootham School {{UK-radio-bio-stub