On this programme a couple of plastic surgeons talked about €˜improvements€™ that could be made to older faces to €˜affect€™ the impact of ageing. In contrast to this message, Janet said she was perfectly happy with her 60-something face and then said €˜we have to stop valuing older women only if they are ageing youthfully.€™ I was loudly cheering her at that point and immediately thought she would make a great ambassador for LFF! So, I was very pleased when Janet agreed to meet me in Hammersmith, where she lives, and even more happy when it became clear that we were both singing from the same hymn sheet about ageing.

Janet has had a forty year career in the public eye and is probably best remembered as a children€™s TV presenter on 'Jigsaw' and 'Blue Peter'.

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I first remember watching her on the iconic programme Blue Peter with my two young daughters who loved it. Alongside her career on TV she has raised three children, including Sophie who achieved great fame and success in the early 2000€™s as a pop singer. Janet is still broadcasting and is a regular contributor to 'The Wright Stuff' on Channel 5. I have often watched Janet on this opinion-based talk show and have found myself agreeing with everything she says (which is another reason I wanted to meet her!). In 2014 she realised a long held ambition when she started writing her first novel, 'The Butcher's Hook'. It was decided to submit this to publishers under the pseudonym Jo Winter - the name of one of Janet€™s grandmothers. The result was a two-book deal and her first novel, The Butcher€™s Hook was published in 2016.

This was very well received and Janet was included in The Observer€™s pick of the 'New Faces of Fiction' in 2016.

I do hope you enjoy my interview with Janet which we filmed in her house. She really enjoys makeup and loved the warm toned colours that our makeup artist Amanda Durkin applied. (See below for the full list.) We think she looks fabulous!

See my interview with Janet below and apologies for the yapping dog which was in next-door's garden and therefore beyond our control!

Do leave your comments on my interview here. Janet raised some really interesting points - so do tell us your thoughts about:

  • Janet mentions disliking ageist remarks like 'you look great' (in brackets - 'considering your age'). What bugbears do you have about ageist language?
  • Do you agree with Janet that the ubiquitous Helen Mirren needs to be joined by many other older female role models - who would you nominate as your own role model for ageing fabulously?
  • Janet talks of her fear of ageing being about any limitations or restrictions it might impose on her life. What are your own fears?
  • Janet loves LFF because 'it's absolutely brilliant that there is something 'just for us'. What do you love about LFF?