The Essay - A Letter to My Body - Joan Bakewell

'A Letter to my Body' is a series of essays in which five thinkers, artists and writers ask themselves how they relate to their own bodies. In this essay broadcaster Dame Joan Bakewell, who has been outspoken on the way that our society perceives and treats old people, asks herself how she feels about her own body now that she has reached her seventies. She explores the cultural influences - from Shirley Temple to the image of the white wedding - which led her to grow up seeking to use her appearance to gain affection and approval and asks whether now, as she approaches old age, she has finally been liberated from society's expectations of the female body. Producer: Charlotte Simpson.