Joan Bakewell

Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, ('' née'' Rowlands; born 16 April 1933), is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer. Baroness Bakewell is president of Birkbeck, University of London; she is also an author and playwright, and has been awarded Humanist of the year for services to humanism.

Early life and education

Bakewell was born on 16 April 1933 in Heaton Moor, Stockport, Cheshire, England, and moved to Hazel Grove before she was three. Both her grandfathers were factory workers: the Rowlands branch stemmed from the lead mining villages of the Ystwyth valley, in Wales. Her great-grandfather moved to Salford, where he was a preacher in the Church Army. Her grandfather was an iron turner. On the maternal side, her grandfather was a cooper in Ardwick Brewery. The family lived in Gorton, a district of Manchester.

Bakewell was educated at Stockport High School for Girls, a grammar school in local authority control, where she became head girl. She won a scholarship and attended Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, where she studied Economics, then History, and joined the Marshall Society and the Mummers Acting Society.

Career

Broadcasting

Joan Bakewell began her career as a studio manager for BBC Radio, before moving into television. 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 BBC2 programme '' Late Night Line-Up'' (1965–72 and 2008). Frank Muir dubbed her "the thinking man's crumpet" during this period and the moniker stuck, but Bakewell herself dislikes the epithet. In 1968, she took the role of narrator of the BBC TV production of ''Cold Comfort Farm'', a three-part serial, and played a TV interviewer in the 1960s film '' The Touchables''.

Bakewell co-presented ''Reports Action'', a Sunday teatime programme which encouraged the public to donate their services to various good causes, for Granada Television in 1976–78. In the 1970s Bakewell worked for both the BBC: "Where is Your God?", "Who Cares" "The Affirmative Way" and many Holiday Programmes between 1974 and 1978. Bakewell starred in 4 series of Granada’s pioneering Reports Action, a series that first encouraged the public to contribute goods and services to good causes. Subsequently, she returned to the BBC, and co-presented a short-lived late-night television arts programme, briefly worked on the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme, and was ''Newsnight''s arts correspondent (1986–88). Arts coverage was then dropped from news programmes in the era of John Birt's changes to the BBC. Bakewell switched to being the main presenter of the ethics documentary series '' Heart of the Matter'', which she presented for 12 years. She resigned from the programme in 1999.

In 2001, Bakewell wrote and presented a four-part series for BBC Two called ''Taboo'', a personal exploration of the concepts of taste, decency and censorship. The programme dealt frankly with sex and nudity and in some cases pushed the boundaries of what is permissible on mainstream television. Bakewell used frank language and "four-letter words" to describe pornography and sex toys. She watched a couple having sex while they were making a pornographic film and read out an "obscene" extract from the novel ''Tropic of Cancer'' by Henry Miller.

''Taboo'' was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association by then headed by John Beyer. Following the complaint, Bakewell faced the nominal prospect of being charged with blasphemous libel after she recited part of an erotic poem by James Kirkup concerning a Roman centurion's affection for Jesus, "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name". After its first publication in 1976, Denis Lemon, the editor of ''Gay News'', had been given a nine-month suspended jail sentence. Bakewell later wrote that in the programme she "read this poem with extreme distaste and I hope that showed on my face." The Broadcasting Standards Commission rejected complaints from viewers.

On 26 May 2008, Bakewell introduced an archive evening on BBC Parliament called ''Permissive Night''. The programme examined the liberalising legislation passed by Parliament in the late 1960s. Topics covered included changes to divorce law, the death penalty, the legalisation of abortion, the Race Relations Bill, the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts (using editions of the documentary series '' Man Alive'') and the relaxation of censorship. ''Permissive Night'' concluded with a special one-off edition of '' Late Night Line-Up'' which discussed the themes raised in the programmes over the course of the evening.

In 2009, she won the category Journalist of the Year at the annual Stonewall Awards.

In 2017, Bakewell was one of the minor hosts of the Channel 5 documentary series '' Secrets of the National Trust''.

She presents ''Portrait Artist of the Year'' alongside Stephen Mangan for Sky Television.

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.

Public roles

She is chairman of the theatre company Shared Experience

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