Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962): Bette Davis, Joan Crawford & the Feud That Became Legend

About this episode

Click here to visit our YouTube Channel This week, we're heading into the wonderfully unsettling world of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), the psychological thriller that brought two of Hollywood's greatest stars together for a spectacularly uncomfortable family reunion. With Bette Davis as the grotesquely theatrical former child star Baby Jane Hudson and Joan Crawford as her wheelchair-using sister Blanche, it's a film packed with jealousy, resentment, faded glamour and some truly extraordinary performances. But is it really a story about two sisters who hate each other, or does it reveal something much more troubling about Hollywood's treatment of ageing women? And, naturally, could you get away with it today? First, we're travelling back to Britain in 1963 for our regular Culture Corner. It's a year of scandal, satire and enormous social change. The Profumo affair exposes the secrets of Britain's political establishment, the Duke and Duchess of Argyll's divorceprovides sensational headlines, and a new generation of satirists begins challenging the country's traditional deference to authority. Meanwhile, Beatlemania is sweeping the nation, Dr Beeching's railway pro