Joan Bakewell
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Joan Bakewell CBE (born April 16, 1933, Stockport, Cheshire) is an English journalist and television presenter.
Born Joan Dawson Rowlands, she was educated at Stockport Convent High School For Girls, where she was head girl and Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she first came into contact with another future journalist, Brian Redhead, and a future husband, Michael Bakewell.
She first became well known as one of the presenters of an early BBC Two programme, Late Night Line-Up (1965-72). Frank Muir dubbed her "the thinking man's crumpet" during this period, and it stuck.
For Granada Television during 1976-78 she co-presented Reports Action, a Sunday teatime programme which encouraged the public to donate their services to various 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) before apparently being sacked by John Birt.
Later she came to the fore as the main presenter of the documentary series Heart of the Matter. She was Chairman of the British Film Institute from 2000 to 2002.
She was appointed CBE in 1999. Her autobiography, The Centre of the Bed (ISBN 0-340-82310-0), was published in 2004. It describes at length her affair with Harold Pinter, while he was still married to the actress Vivien Merchant and she was still married to Michael Bakewell.
She is also currently writing 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.