When Frost Met Bakewell BBC4 last Sunday at 9pm

[salymap]

David Frost interviewes Joan Bakewell about her career. As these boards consist of 99% men I doubt that many watched it, or if so perhaps for the wrong reasons.

I personally find her as inspirational as she finds her hero, Nelson Mandela.

[Barbirollians]

I thought it was an excellent interview . She is an inspiration to be so full of life at 80 and so lacking in self-aggrandisement.

[salymap]

I thought it was an excellent interview . She is an inspiration to be so full of life at 80 and so lacking in self-aggrandisement.

I didn't record the following programme 'Bakewell at the BBC' but now wish I had. TVIplayer still not working.

Thanks Barbirollians.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, Joan is now nearly back in my favour, after badly in my view letting herself down a few years ago when she basically said in an interview, s*d the next generation/inheritance; I've made my pile thank you very much, they're not having any of it, they're on their own, it's all up to them.

[Barbirollians]

I am sure it is on iplayer salymap .

[Mary Chambers]

I went off her when I read her autobiography. She seemed very selfish and self-satisfied to me.

[Anna]

I went off her when I read her autobiography. She seemed very selfish and self-satisfied to me.

Oh dear, no longer the thinking man's crumpet (as I think she was described?) and S_A has also gone off her for daring to spend the money she's made for herself and not leaving it to her children .... Blimey, she sounds a right nightmare don't she? Probably a feminist as well. Tut, Tut!! Shame on her.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

posting as a thinking man could not take me eyes off her ankles ... rather fine ....

[Mary Chambers]

Oh dear, no longer the thinking man's crumpet (as I think she was described?) and S_A has also gone off her for daring to spend the money she's made for herself and not leaving it to her children .... Blimey, she sounds a right nightmare don't she? Probably a feminist as well. Tut, Tut!! Shame on her.

You're in a bad temper these days, Anna! Of course she's a feminist, as are all sensible women including me, but being a feminist doesn't mean you always put yourself and your self-interest first.

[salymap]

I think JB made it clear, when asked, that her family meant more to her than anything.

[Mary Chambers]

I think JB made it clear, when asked, that her family meant more to her than anything.

It's a while since I read her book, but I think it was the utterly self-centred attitude towards her affair with Pinter (or someone else, perhaps) that I found off putting. She didn't seem to care who got hurt so long as she was enjoying herself. I did admire her before I read that book, and still do in some ways.

She is very lucky in the way she looks, especially the cheekbones!

[salymap]

It's a while since I read her book, but I think it was the utterly self-centred attitude towards her affair with Pinter (or someone else, perhaps) that I found off putting. She didn't seem to care who got hurt so long as she was enjoying herself. I did admire her before I read that book, and still do in some ways.

She is very lucky in the way she looks, especially the cheekbones!

Yes Mary, she still looks very attractive and is lucky to have avoided illhealth in her 80 years. And still making programmes occasionally.

[Richard Tarleton]

Outstanding interview. Perhaps not so much self-centred as honest, when it came to her affair? I haven't read her book, but did see the Pinter play when it was televised, with Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley, with Patricia Hodge playing the Joan Bakewell character. There was clearly a lot of hurt there, and I don't know how the reality stood up to her analysis of a "grown-up marriage" as she called it.

I'd like to have pressed her a bit more about her sense that the world was getting better in the Attlee era, and that things are getting worse now - I don't disagree with the latter, though for environmental reasons as much as geopolitical ones....but in the post war years there were 40 years of cold war and (in GB's case) economic decline to look forward to. Hindsight is wonderful.

Great to see it on iPlayer - the cutaways to her facial expressions during those old interviews, and that piece to camera about those antique dresses, were priceless.

Incidentally she once did one of those "Room of my own" interviews for - possibly the Observer - from her bathroom, with her lying in her bath (empty, fully clothed) with bookshelves above the bath - she said the steam did not harm the books. I pass this on for what it is worth. I've sometimes thought about this as we run out of bookshelf space......

[Serial_Apologist]

You're in a bad temper these days, Anna! Of course she's a feminist, as are all sensible women including me, but being a feminist doesn't mean you always put yourself and your self-interest first.

[Forget It (U2079353)]

Belief

Her recent work as interviewer on Radio 3's Belief programme

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071lcf/episodes/player

is excellent IMO.