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Veteran broadcaster, journalist and writer Dame Joan Bakewell reflects on her life as one of the most recognised and outspoken public figures of recent decades.

Bakewell is now in her 80s and has had spells variously as a teacher, writer, broadcaster, the government’s Voice of Older people, chair of the theatre company Shared Experience, president of Birkbeck College and Labour peer. She looks back at what her family has given her, the times she grew up in, and the lessons of politics, lovers and betrayal. Bakewell also reflects on family, friends and literature today and on what she will leave behind.

Bakewell was brought up in Stockport and went to grammar school. She is author of two novels, All The Nice Girls and She’s Leaving Home, and an autobiography, The Centre of the Bed, which touches on her affair with Harold Pinter. She worked on various television programmes before coming to the fore as presenter of the long-running discussion series Heart of the Matter.

Here she talks to journalist and former BBC producer Matthew Stadlen, who is a regular interviewer for the Daily Telegraph and has interviewed for the BBC.
Sponsored by University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education.