Janet Ellis is exactly as you might remember her from her days as a Blue Peter presenter: elfin movements, lively eyes, a penetrating aspect that could smell bullshit a mile away but would never be so discourteous as to mention it. She lives in London with her 21-year-old grandson and a gentle Italian spinone called Angela, who follows her everywhere. The dog is a surprise, being the size of a horse. It adds an element of slightly fairytale jeopardy to the scene, as you watch them pad down the stairs and think, “What happens the day Angela decides to go a bit faster?”
Ellis, 70, will become the next president of Humanists UK at the start of 2026, taking over from the geneticist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford. She supports the group’s campaigns – for secular schools and assisted dying laws. More broadly, she says she has “always been struck” by its “steady calmness” – a port of irreligious decency in stormy times. “Since I was a child, I’ve found the idea of prioritising what came next over this bit a really weird concept. Everything starts and finishes in our minds.”
