Joan Bakewell to be awarded 2019 Bafta TV Fellowship

The 85-year-old, who currently presents Portrait Artist of the Year alongside actor Stephen Mangan on Sky Arts, will accept the award at the Bafta Television Awards 2019 on Sunday 12th May.

Bakewell is best known for fronting factual programmes such as Late Night Line-up and Heart of the Matter on the BBC, the latter of which ran for 21 years between 1979 and 2000. She also served as BBC television's Arts Correspondent from 1981 to 1987, and wrote and presented four-part series Taboo in 2001.

She will be joined on the night by producer Nicola Shindler, who will receive the Special Award for her outstanding contribution to the TV industry with production company RED, which she founded in 1998. Shindler has produced shows such as Queer As Folk, Happy Valley and Harlan Coben's Safe. She also has a hand in BBC1's Trust Me and Russell T Davies' upcoming drama Years and Years, which premiered at this year's BFI and Radio Times Television Festival to much acclaim.

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Script supervisor Emma Thomas, who has worked on beloved shows such as Birds of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart, Bad Education, Benidorm, Luther and The Bill, will receive Bafta Craft's Special Award at the ceremony held on 28th April.

The TV Baftas will be broadcast Sunday 12th May on BBC1. Find out everything you need to know about the ceremony here.