Taking over from Claudia Winkelman, who's announced she's quitting

Romesh Ranganathan is to take over Radio 2's Saturday morning slot after  Claudia Winkleman announced she will be stepping down.

The comic will be taking over the 10am to 1pm slot in April after Winkleman decided she wanted to spend more time with her family.

She said: 'I absolutely love Radio 2 and it’s been a privilege to host the Saturday morning show for three years. I will miss our amazing guests, our brilliant listeners and the one and only Sally Traffic.

'The truth is my children are growing up inordinately fast so I have decided to follow them around at home before they leave for good. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who works on the show, I will continue to visit with badly made biscuits and will pester the bosses to present the odd special.

'I couldn’t be happier that Romesh is taking over.... He is brilliantly laugh out loud funny, and I’ll listen every single week as my kids beg me to leave them alone.'

Ranganathan added: 'In my many years working as a maths teacher thinking @what would happen if I gave this up@, I never imagined I’d be sandwiched between Dermot O’Leary and Steve Wright on the UK’s most popular radio station every Saturday morning.

'I’m grateful to Claud for wanting to spend more time with her kids, and enabling me to spend less time with mine, and I look forward to finding out what the nation is up to at that time, as well as speaking to some familiar faces. It’s going to be fun. Probably.' 

Ranganathan is already host of his own Radio 2 and BBC Sounds show For The Love Of Hip Hop and channel boss Helen Thomas, Head of Radio 2 said: 'Judging by the audience’s reaction to him at Radio 2 in the Park in Leicester this year, he’s already a firm favourite with our listeners. Like Claud before him, he’ll guarantee your Saturday mornings continue to be an appointment to listen.'

Published: 2 Dec 2023