Romesh Ranganathan to launch Saturday show on Radio 2 in April
Following Claudia Winkleman announcing on Radio 2 that she has decided to step down from her 10am to 1pm Saturday show in March 2024, iy has been revealed that Romesh Ranganathan will launch a new show in the slot in April.
The comedian currently presents For The Love Of Hip Hop on the station, which is broadcast in the early hours of Saturday morning (midnight - 1am), and now he will launch a new Saturday morning show in the 10am - 1pm slot.
Winkleman says: "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 Saturday mornings on Radio 2. He is brilliantly laugh out loud funny, and I'll listen every single week as my kids beg me to leave them alone."
Ranganathan comments: "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."
Helen Thomas, Head of Radio 2, says: "I'd like to thank Claudia for entertaining her millions of listeners each Saturday morning with such sparkling wit and great warmth. Radio 2 listeners can rest easy as we're working on a plan for some specials in the future, so watch this space!
"I'm delighted to welcome Romesh to his new Saturday morning show on Radio 2. 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."