In 1921, at the age of 16, he succeeded as the second Bartlett baronet of Hardington Mandeville, upon inheriting the title from his grandfather, the building contractor Sir Herbert Bartlett, as his father had died the previous year.^[3]

Educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, he went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating as Bachelor of Arts (proceeding MA).^[4]

Starting out as a stage actor in the 1930s,^[1] Bartlett was commissioned in the British Army at the outbreak of World War II, and served as a captain during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940: mentioned in despatches, he was wounded during the retreat.^[4] He published My First War: An Army Officer's Journal for May 1940, Through Belgium to Dunkirk. During his convalescence he worked as screenwriter of the war films The Next of Kin (1942) (which he later also turned into a novel), Secret Mission (1942) and They Met in the Dark (1943).^[1] Seconded to the Intelligence Corps, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel^[4] in charge of the kinematographic group of 21st Army Group.

After the War, Bartlett briefly tried to take up his career as actor again, appearing in Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), before joining the BBC, where he became Head of the Script Department, but also translated a couple of French screenplays.^[1] He participated as model in three of the six 15-minute programmes in BBC's first ever series in colour, Men, Women and Clothes, a history of fashion which was broadcast between 21 April and 26 May 1957 (available in the BBC on line archive).^[5]

He was married to Mary Malcolm (daughter of Sir Ian Malcolm), one of the first two regular female announcers on BBC Television after World War II,^[2] from 1937 to 1960, and they had three daughters. Upon his death in 1985, the baronetcy passed to his younger brother, the Olympic fencer, David Bartlett.

• Less Than Kind (TV film) (1959) (translator)
• Men, Women and Clothes: Informal Clothes (TV programme) (1957) (actor)^[6]
• Men, Women and Clothes: Sense and Nonsense in Fashion (TV programme) (1957) (actor)^[7]
• Men, Women and Clothes: How Fashions Come and Go (TV programme) (1957) (actor)^[5]
• It Is Midnight, Doctor Schweitzer (TV film) (1953) (translator)
• Asmodée (TV film) (1952) (translator)
• Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) (actor, playing Captain Elliott – uncredited)
• Dunkirk: A Personal Perspective (radio programme) (1950) (narrator)^[8]
• They Met in the Dark (scenario) (1943)
• Secret Mission (screenwriter) (1942)
• The Next of Kin (screenwriter and military supervisor) (1942)

• Captain Sir Basil Bartlett Bt: My First War: An Army Officer's Journal for May 1940, Through Belgium to Dunkirk – London: Chatto & Windas, 1940.^[9]
• Sir Basil Bartlett: Next of Kin, a novel – London: Chatto & Windus, 1944^[10]
• Sir Basil Bartlett: Writing for Television – London: Allen & Unwin, 1955^[11]
• Sir Basil Bartlett: Jam Tomorrow: Some Early Reminiscences – London: Harper Collins, 1978. ISBN 0236401386^[12]