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Veteran broadcaster Joan Bakewell has said she regrets being known as “the thinking man’s bun” as her image created a stereotype about a “frivolous girl in short skirts”.
The television presenter received the nickname in the 1960s, which stuck for many years, after she appeared on BBC2’s groundbreaking Late Night Line-Up debate show.
One of the relatively few prominent television presenters in the 1960s, she appeared on air in fashionable clothing, such as elegant dresses and miniskirts, becoming a sex symbol during the decade.
But in a speech about her career in broadcasting, Dame Joan, 91, said she did not feel comfortable being judged on her appearance, saying it made her feel like the things she cared about didn’t matter to people.
Giving the Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture at the Royal Television Society/The Media Society, she said: “I was one of the first women to appear on television… And with that, the attention goes away from Fleet Street, which is not particularly attractive, and I was given a label that stuck with me for quite a while until I got too old for it.
Joan Bakewell has said she regrets being known as “the thinking man’s ball” as her image created a stereotype about a “frivolous girl in short skirts” (pictured with Stephen Mangan in April).
The presenter received the nickname in the 1960s, after appearing on BBC2’s ground-breaking debate show Late Night Line-Up (pictured in 1967).
“But there were a lot of articles about my short skirts, my hair and things like that.”
He added: “They gave me the kind of attention that was focused where I didn’t want it to be, and I had to endure it.” It really wasn’t appropriate to come out and complain.
“Now, young women would go to the law and say this is damaging my career.”
Dame Joan, who has presented art exhibitions for Sky in recent years, said at the time that the press would have told her the coverage was “enhancing” her career.
The Labor peer added: “I sort of put up with it, and years later I rather regretted that it created this kind of fantasy about a frivolous girl in short skirts.”
“Well, that was the trend, and I guess it didn’t do me any harm, but it didn’t make me feel like what I cared about mattered, which was the ideas, the people, the conversation, the benefits of television, the good things.” . could do, the good we could do in the world.’
She said that despite her discomfort, she “went through all the talk about short skirts” to get her message across.
Bakewell added: “I certainly have a lot to be grateful for. It was a great time. There was a lot of freedom, but also a lot of restrictions.”
Comedy writer and television star Frank Muir jokingly labeled her “Thinking Man’s Ball” in the 1960s, but the nickname stuck.
But in a speech about her broadcasting career, Joan said she didn’t feel comfortable being judged on her appearance (pictured in 2020).
In a previous interview, she said she had not felt “insulted” by the label, but that feminists felt she had “sold out” by not feeling “outraged.”
She told The Guardian that in 2016 people had pressured her to report Muir over the comment, but she said he was a “sweetheart” who would have “dissolved in shame” if he had done so.
In another interview, he described it as a “silly comment” from someone who was his friend.
Bakewell had a long affair with the playwright Harold Pinter in the 1960s. Pinter wrote the 1978 drama Betrayal about their secret affair.
Last year, Bakewell revealed that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.