About Joan Bakewell

Joan was born in Stockport, and grew up in Hazel Grove, Cheshire. She was educated at Norbury Primary School, Stockport High School for Girls and Newnham College Cambridge, where she graduated with a Part I degree in Economics and Part II in History. She has lived in London since 1954.

She is divorced, with two children and six grand children.

Career 1954 - 1956	Studio Manager with BBC Radio
1957 - 1959	Advertising Copywriter with McCann Erickson, Hobson Bates and later David Williams Ltd
1962	First television broadcast as contributor to BBC TV's Table Talk
Early 1960s	Presenter ATV's Sunday Break (ITV) Home at 4.30 for Southern Television (ITV) The Second Sex for BBC TV Meeting Point for BBC TV
1965 - 1972	Late Night Line Up: one of four presenter-interviewers for BBC 2's nightly programme Also Celebrity Interviews at the National Film Theatre: Bette Davis, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster
1970's	For BBC TV: Where Is Your God? Who Cares? The Affirmative Way Holiday Programmes 1974 - 1978 For Granada TV: Four Series of Reports Action.
Journalism 1970's	Columnist for The Manchester Evening News. Television critic for Punch. Television reviewer for The Times. Profile writer for The Illustrated London News.
1987 - 1990	Columnist for The Sunday Times
2003 - 2011	Columnist for The Guardian
2003 - 2008	Columnist for The Independent
2008 - 2010	Columnist for The Times
2011 -	Columnist for The Daily Telegraph
BBC Television 1981 - 1987	BBC Television's Arts Correspondent
1987 - 2000	BBC 1's Heart of the Matter
2000	Contributions to One Foot in the Past, Correspondent and other on-going series My Generation: writer and presenter of three-part Series for BBC 2
2001	Taboo: writer and presenter of three-part Series for BBC 2
2011 -	Occasional Panorama presenter for BBC 1
BBC Radio 1999 - 2000	Presenter of BBC Radio 3's Artist of the Week
1999 - 2001	Chair of BBC Radio 3's The Brains Trust
2001 - 2014	Presenter of BBC Radio 3's Belief series.
2009 - 2016	Presenter of BBC Radio 4's Inside the Ethics Committee
2016 - 2019	Presenter of BBC Radio 4's We Need to Talk About Death
Sky Arts 2013 - 2022	Annual Portrait Artist of the Year Annual Landscape Artist of the Year
Publications 1970s	Numerous short stories: Womens' Magazines, Punch etc
1970	The New Priesthood: British Television Today (with Professor Nicholas Garnham) A Fine and Private Place (with John Drummond)
1977	The Complete Traveller
1996	The Heart of the Matter: A Memoir
2003	The Centre of the Bed (autobiography)
2005	Belief
2006	The View from Here: Life at Seventy
2009	All the Nice Girls (novel)
2011	She's Leaving Home (novel)
2016	Stop the Clocks
2022	The Tick of Two Clocks
Joan has served on: 1984 - 1999	The Council of the Aldeburgh Festival
1994 - 2003	The Council of the Friends of the Tate Gallery
1998 - 2003	Board of the Royal National Theatre
1994 - 2002	Governor of the BFI
2000 - 2002	Chair of the BFI
2005 - 2009	Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts
2007 - 2012	Chair of the theatre company, Shared Experience.
Patron
	The Piers Association The Almshouse Association
As a Labour Peer
2013 - 2015	Communications Committee of the House of Lords
2016 - 2018	The Speaker's Arts Advisory Panel
2017	Select Committee on A.I.
2019	Select Committee on the Regeneration of the Seaside
2021	Select Committee on the Built Environment
2017 -	Joint Chair of the Humanists APPG
Honorary Degrees	Stirling University Queen Margaret's University, Edinburgh Royal Holloway, London Chester University University of the Arts Staffordshire University Lancaster University Newcastle University The Open University Essex University Manchester Metropolitan University

Joan was made a CBE is 1999 and Dame in 2008. In January 2011 she took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Bakewell of Stockport. In April 2013, she became President of Birkbeck College.

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