For a long time, Joan Bakewell has been a professional inspiration to me: a broadcasting superstar whose professional longevity is a testament to her talent, curiosity and hard work. She is a few months shy of her 90th birthday but still as busy as ever, presenting Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year for Sky Arts. She’s also a peer of the realm and the president of Birkbeck, University of London.
Baroness Bakewell joins me to talk about her extraordinary career interviewing everyone from Marcel Duchamp to Nelson Mandela. Plus: sexism, class, her failure to become an actress, her memories of the Blitz, her two divorces and her long-running affair with the esteemed playwright Harold Pinter.
It was such an amazing conversation and a real honour for me to talk to this thoroughly wonderful woman.

--

My new book, FRIENDAHOLIC: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, will be published next month and is now available to preorder - at half price - here.

--

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com

--

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Joan Bakewell @JDBakewell