Witness to our Times: Joan Bakewell with Peter Hennessy

An evening with an exceptional broadcaster

From her first appearance on BBC television in 1962 to her presentation of the groundbreaking series Taboo, Joan Bakewell has witnessed and reported on unprecedented developments in contemporary British social life and culture. She has broadcast extensively on the arts, on religion, and latterly on issues surrounding ageing, as well as serving on the boards of the National Theatre, the British Film Institute and the National Campaign for the Arts, to name but a few. To coincide with the acquisition of her archive by the British Library, she discusses her life and work with Peter Hennessy.

Joan Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell of Stockport, studied at Stockport High School for Girls and at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her books include The Centre of the Bed, She's Leaving Home, The View From Here, and most recently, Stop the Clocks - Thoughts on What I Leave Behind. She was appointed CBE in 1999, promoted to DBE in 2008, and made a life peer in 2010. Peter Hennessy, Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, is Attlee Profesor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary University of London and the author of, among others, Never Again: Britain 1945-51, Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties, and The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War.