A lifetime achievement award for Joan Bakewell
Photo: Grazia
On Sunday, Joan Bakewell, 86, will receive the BAFTA Television Fellowship Award for a lifetime’s contribution to broadcasting. Often name-checked as the ultimate role model for women in the media industry, Bakewell has over 50 years experience. After graduating in Economics from Cambridge, she became the only female presenter on the BBC’s 1960s arts show Late Night Line-Up and now in her ninth decade co-presents Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year with Stephen Mangan. Throughout her journalism career, Bakewell has battled sexism and inequality and seen significant changes in the predominantly male culture; while she praises Newsnight’s all-female team of presenters, she acknowledges that there’s still work to be done to reduce the Gender Pay Gap and further improve the representation of older women. ‘There are shockingly fewer older women in television,’ she said recently, ‘By contrast, there’s a certain older male broadcaster type I call the ‘buccaneer’, who you often see out in deserts or on tanks, who are craggy and lined and viewed as all the more interesting for it. Sadly, there are few female equivalents.’
Joan Bakewell interviewing Harold Pinter. Photo: BBC
In a Grazia magazine essay, the broadcaster reflects on her career and the challenges women still face in the #MeToo era. Here’s her conclusion:
‘The best way for women to change television is to be good at their job – and not give up. I’ve been sacked a number of times…but I stayed in the race and am still broadcasting now. There are so many fantastic young women coming through who are part of a generation that won’t stand for inequality of pay or opportunities. And there are brilliant women in their fifties and sixties, such as news correspondent Orla Guerlin and Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, whose experience is invaluable. If all these women continue, and receive the rewards and opportunities they deserve, we’ll have something approaching true equality.’
The BAFTA award is a fitting tribute to a broadcast pioneer. Three cheers for Joan Bakewell.
Discussion (8 Comments)
Oh yes, thank you. I read the Zoe Williams/Guardian feature the other day – the eclectic book club membership was quite surprising, but I’m sure Joan Bakewell can hold her own against Stanley Johnson!
Mrs Tonia says:
Glad to learn that she’s receiving a Bafta award this weekend and is still a prominent voice despite being an older generation.
After making a fuss about their lack of representation the BBC brought back veteran newscasters Julia Somerville and Angela Rippon and Gloria Hunniford to co-present a consumer daytime programme. We need more older faces in the media.I forgot to mention Joanne Lumley who is a great comedian but also frequently seen on a series of travelogues. One I saw had her travelling around Japan.
Sara says:
I’d bet JB against Stanley J any day! Wonderful woman, all praise richly deserved. Combination of intelligence, humanity, compassion and style: little more to be said. Guardian article summed it up well. A long-time favourite of mine and I’m always pleased to hear, see or read about her as she still has fresh things to say. Hope I can manage just a smidge of that when I reach her age.
Linda says:
Well done Dame Joan Bakewell on your many superb achievements and on continuing to be such an inspiration especially to older women..
On a personal level I appreciated your recent contribution to the programme on Schools Through The Ages particularly on your observations on the role of Grammar Schools in the Post War years and the opportunities opening up to children of working class families..
Being of the same age as you I gained so much from the experience.. Your comments were so pertinent and down to earth.
Thank you for all you have done and still do.Jeanne Edwards says:
JB is fantastic and still razor sharp. We used to watch Late Night Line Up even though we were quite young at the time, and thinking she is so clever and beautiful . Agree with Wendy re the spark between HP and her in the photo…..first thing I noticed actually !!
Jeanne
Congratulations to Joan Bakewell on receiving her Bafta Lifetime Achievement Award in the ceremony broadcast last night. It was the current Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark who presented her with the award. And she made a fine impassioned speech. Well done.
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Yes , she’s great . This is another good article about her . https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/06/joan-bakewell-you-dont-get-the-albert-finneys-and-the-tom-contis-today-its-all-these-old-Etonians . Apparently her book club includes Boris Johnson’s father .
You can see the sparks between her & HP in photos of them together .