Joan Bakewell
FRSA | |
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Born | Joan Dawson Rowlands 16 April 1933 |
Education | Newnham College, Cambridge (BA) |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1965–present |
Employer | BBC |
Title | President of Birkbeck, University of London |
Political party | Labour |
Spouses | |
Children | 2 |
Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell,
Early life and education
Bakewell was born on 16 April 1933 in
Bakewell was educated at
Career
Broadcasting
Joan Bakewell began her career as a studio manager for BBC Radio, before moving into television.[5] Bakewell then left after a year to try supply teaching. She then became an advertising copywriter with McCann Erickson, then with Hobson Bates, and later David Williams Ltd. In the early 60s Bakewell was TV presenter for ATV’s Sunday Break, Southern Television’s Home at 4.30, BBC’s Meeting Point and the BBC series The Second Sex.
She first became known as one of the presenters of the
Bakewell co-presented Reports Action, a Sunday teatime programme which encouraged the public to donate their services to various good causes, for
In 2001, Bakewell wrote and presented a four-part series for BBC Two called Taboo, a personal exploration of the concepts of
Taboo was referred to the
On 26 May 2008, Bakewell introduced an archive evening on
In 2009, she won the category Journalist of the Year at the annual Stonewall Awards.[citation needed]
In 2017, Bakewell was one of the minor hosts of the
On Sky Arts, Bakewell co-hosted Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year, initially alongside Frank Skinner and later Stephen Mangan.
Year | Programme |
---|---|
1979–1981 | BBC Radio 4 PM |
1981–1987 | BBC Television Arts Correspondent |
1987–1999 | Heart of the Matter Host |
1999–2000 | Radio 3's Artist of the Week |
2001–2014 | Radio 3’s Belief Series |
2009–2016 | Radio 4’s Inside the Ethics Committee |
2011–2012 | Classic FM Series |
2013–2022 | Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year |
2015–2022 | Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year |
2017–2020 | Radio 4’s We Need to Talk about Death |
Writing
Bakewell writes for the British newspaper The Independent in the 'Editorial and Opinion' section. Typically, her articles concern aspects of social life and culture but sometimes she writes more political articles, often focusing on aspects relevant to life in the United Kingdom. Formerly, from 2003, she wrote the "Just Seventy" column for The Guardian newspaper. In September 2008 she began a fortnightly column in the Times2 section of The Times.
Her first novel was published in March 2009 by Virago Press. All the Nice Girls drew on her experiences in war-time Merseyside to tell the story of a school "adopting" a ship.
Year | Publication |
---|---|
1970 | The New Priesthood (with Professor Nick Garnham) |
1970 | A Fine and Private Place (with John Drummond) |
1977 | The Complete Traveller |
2003 | The Centre of the Bed |
2005 | Belief |
2006 | The View from Here |
2009 | All the Nice Girls |
2011 | She's Leaving Home |
2016 | Stop the Clocks |
2021 | The Tick of Two Clocks |
Year | Publication | Occupation |
---|---|---|
1970 | Manchester Evening News | Columnist |
1970 | The Times | Television Critic |
1970 | The Illustrated London News | Profile Writer |
1987–1990 | The Sunday Times | Columnist |
2003–2005 | The Guardian | Columnist |
2006–2008 | The Independent | Columnist |
2008–2010 | The Times | Columnist |
Public roles
She is chairman of the theatre company Shared Experience.
She is a Patron for the Plaza Cinema, Stockport.[14]
It was announced in November 2010 that she would be awarded a
In September 2017, Bakewell was elected co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, the cross-party group which represents humanists in Parliament.[18]
Year | Organization |
---|---|
1984–1999 | Council of the Friends of the Tate Gallery |
1994–2003 | Board of the Royal National Theatre |
1994–2003 | Governor at the BFI |
1998–2003 | Board of the Royal National Theatre |
2000–2002 | Chair of the BFI |
2004–2011 | Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts |
2007–2012 | Chair of the theatre company: Shared Experience |
Year | Position |
---|---|
1999 | Awarded CBE |
2008 | Awarded DBE |
2011 | Member of the House of Lords. |
2013–2015 | Communications Committee of the House of Lords |
2016–2018 | The Speaker's Arts Advisory Panel |
2017 | Select Committee on AI |
2017 | Joint Chair of the Humanists APPG |
2019 | Select Committee on the Regeneration of the Seaside |
2019 | Elected member of the British Academy |
Views and advocacy
In 2008, Bakewell criticised the absence of older women on British television. She said: "I think the fact that people are phased out, people like Moira Stuart and Selina [Scott] – out of the public eye – when they become a certain age is a real disadvantage to serious broadcasting. There's a whole segment of the British population that does not see its equivalent in serious broadcasting and that is women over 55. Now, that is not healthy for a broadcasting organisation's relationship with its audience. The public should be represented on the screen in various colours, forms, sexualities, whatever."[19]
In 2010, Bakewell criticised the side effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. She said: "I never thought I would hear myself say as much, but I'm with Mrs Whitehouse on this one. The liberal mood back in the '60s was that sex was pleasurable and wholesome and shouldn't be seen as dirty and wicked. The Pill allowed women to make choices for themselves. Of course, that meant the risk of making the wrong choice. But we all hoped girls would grow to handle the new freedoms wisely. Then everything came to be about money: so now sex is about money, too. Why else sexualise the clothes of little girls, run TV channels of naked wives, have sex magazines edging out the serious stuff on newsagents' shelves? It's money that's corrupted us and women are being used and are even collaborating."[20]
In August 2014, Bakewell was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[21]
In March 2016, she commented in
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bakewell said that the Government should stop treating the elderly like "a crazy old people's club" and allow them to make their own choices on how best to ensure their personal safety.[27][28]
Honours
She was appointed a
In 2007 She was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) from the University of Chester.[31] On 20 July 2011, Bakewell was made an honorary graduate at the University of Essex (DU Essex).
Bakewell has also received honorary degrees from Queen Margaret’s University Edinburgh (2005), Royal Holloway London, University of the Arts (2008), Staffordshire University (2009), Lancaster University (2010), Newcastle University (2011), Open University (2010) and Manchester Metropolitan University (2013).[citation needed] She was made an Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge in 2016.[32]
In 2017, the charity Humanists UK awarded Bakewell its prize for Humanist of the Year, in recognition of her achievements in broadcasting and services to humanism and other good causes.[33] In 2011 she was appointed Baroness Bakewell of Stockport.
Personal life
Bakewell's autobiography, The Centre of the Bed, was published in 2003 and concentrates on her experiences as a woman in the male-dominated media industry. It also details the extramarital affair Bakewell had with playwright Harold Pinter (between 1962 and 1969), while she was married to Michael Bakewell (the marriage lasted from 1955 to 1972) and Pinter was married to the actress Vivien Merchant. The affair was the basis for Pinter's 1978 play Betrayal, adapted in 1983 as a film.[34][35] In 2017, Keeping in Touch, a play first written by Bakewell in 1978 in response to Betrayal, premiered on BBC Radio 4.[36]
In 1975, she married Jack Emery, a British director, writer and producer for stage, TV and radio, who was 12 years her junior. The couple divorced in 2001. Bakewell said, "The age difference did matter, but other things mattered more."[37]
In January 2023, Bakewell announced that she had been diagnosed with
Legacy
The Joan Bakewell Archive is housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.[39]
References
- ^ "Time and place: Joan Bakewell". The Times. 1 March 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- ^ Bakewell, Joan (2003). The Centre of the Bed. Hodder & Stoughton. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- ^ "Profile: Joan Bakewell". BBC News. 13 June 2008.
- ^ Bakewell, Joan (19 June 2010). "My hero John Maynard Keynes, by Joan Bakewell". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
- ^ a b Vahimagi, Tise (2003–2014). "Bakewell, Dame Joan (1933–)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Manchester Celebrities Archived 29 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine, John Moss, Papillon (Manchester UK) Limited
- ^ "Joan Bakewell tells her side of the story about her affair with Harold Pinter". Radio Times. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
- ^ Gerrard, Nicci (5 November 2000). "Home alone Joan". -The Observer. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ a b Bakewell, Joan (17 November 2006). "So what if people are hooked on sex?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ a b Cozens, Claire (30 May 2002). "Taboo complaints thrown out by watchdog". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Summerskill, Ben (4 March 2002). "TV Joan faces jail for gay poem". The Observer. London. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Bakewell, Joan (6 May 2002). "Diary". New Statesman. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ^ Rampton, James (11 February 2017). "Alan Titchmarsh on Channel 5 show Secrets of the National Trust". Daily Express. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
- ^ "Our Patrons".
- ^ "No. 59681". The London Gazette. 26 January 2011. p. 1261.
- ^ "Baroness Bakewell". UK Parliament website. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ "Introduction: Baroness Bakewell". Hansard.parliament.uk. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
- ^ "Crispin Blunt and Joan Bakewell elected as Chair and Co-Chair of humanists in Parliament". Humanists UK. 13 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
- ^ "Women over 55 'invisible on TV'". BBC News. 6 December 2008.
- ^ "Dame Joan Bakewell says Mary Whitehouse was right", BBC News, 1 June 2010
- ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories". The Guardian. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ Griffiths, Sian. "Anorexia is narcissism, says Joan Bakewell". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ "Why Joan Bakewell must be right about anorexia". 17 March 2016.
- ^ "Joan Bakewell is right that anorexia is linked to vanity". 14 March 2016.
- ^ "Joan Bakewell anorexia comments 'perpetuating stereotypes'". BBC News. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ Bakewell, Joan. "Twitter Feed". Twitter. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ Hope, Christopher (30 April 2020). "Ministers must stop treating elderly like 'a crazy old people's club' over coronavirus ban, Joan Bakewell says". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Alice Thomson; Rachel Sylvester (8 April 2020). "Joan Bakewell: 'The idea that people are dying alone is desperately sad'". The Times.
- ^ "No. 55513". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1999. p. 8.
- ^ "No. 58729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2008. p. 6.
- ^ "Honorary Graduates 2007". University of Chester. 18 March 2019.
- ^ "Honoray Fellows" (PDF). Newnham College – University of Cambridge. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
- ^ "Joan Bakewell wins Humanist of the Year 2017". Humanists UK. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
- ISBN 0-340-82310-0)
- ^ MacGregor, Sue (31 October 2003). "The end of the affair". The Guardian.
- ^ "Keeping in Touch, Drama – BBC Radio 4". BBC.
- ^ "Joan Bakewell tells her side of the story about her affair with Harold Pinter". Radio Times. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
- ^ Nozari, Aisha (11 January 2023). "Iconic BBC broadcaster Dame Joan Bakewell reveals colon cancer diagnosis: "I've always been optimistic"". Metro. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ Joan Bakewell Archive, archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 2 June 2020
External links
- Joan Bakewell at IMDb
- "Lost voices", John Mullan, The Guardian, 18 June 1999.
- Listen to an audio slideshow interview with Joan Bakewell talking about her first novel All the Nice Girls on The Interview Online.
- Joan Bakewell at Knight Ayton Management
- Joan Bakewell Official Website