Like millions of other people, I have a years-long love affair with BBC Radio 2. The news that Liza Tarbuck is to step down from her Saturday evening show after a 14-year stint came like an arrow to my heart.
Her slot between 6 and 8pm has regularly provided the soundtrack to my weekend culinary efforts. As I slosh plonk into a coq au vin, I guffaw at Liza’s daft chatter about dogs, or listen open-mouthed as she reads out bizarre messages sent in by her army of fans. She has said that her show is like a private members’ club: she is spot on with that. Everyone is welcome if they enjoy eclectic music choices, a giggle and a large gin.
On the face of it, Tarbuck’s departure feels like another significant moment for a station that in recent years has seemed to be in perpetual decline. Many of the old-guard of presenters have moved on, among them Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo; the breakfast show hasn’t fully recovered its mojo since Chris Evans left in 2018. And the likes of Vernon Kay have parachuted in, when better in-house options (OJ Borg) have been left languishing in less glamourous slots in the schedule.
And of course there was the untimely death of Steve Wright, who perhaps more than anyone had embodied the station in the past couple of decades. I still can’t hear Glen Campbell singing “Wichita Lineman” without welling up.
Liza Tarbuck has said her Radio 2 show is like a private members’ club (Photo: Supplied)The radio sector has faced disruption in recent years, with the BBC often slow to react to more nimble, commercial stations, and to broader shifts in audience habits in our non-linear age. Changes to the Radio 2 line-up sometimes seem designed to attract younger listeners; sometimes they seem completely random. Given its reputation for being utterly middle-of-the-road, Radio 2 has sometimes felt chaotic.
Tarbuck will be a particularly hard act to follow: her wide-ranging interests and off-the-wall sense of humour make her unique. She is funnier than many comedians; more knowledgeable about music than a lot of career DJs. Who would want to replace a one-off like that? Sara Pascoe perhaps? Lucy Beaumont? Both would bring a similar, zany charm.
It is often said that nobody is irreplaceable. We’ve probably all had that colleague whose retirement was greeted with hand-wringing about how the company would survive without them – but ultimately the world keeps turning. It’s possible that Liza Tarbuck will be Radio 2’s equivalent of Alex Ferguson, but I remind myself that I have felt like this before.
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Most notably, when Graham Norton ended his stint on the Saturday morning show in 2020, I thought I would never have anyone so jolly to accompany my weekly shopping trip to Waitrose. Then Claudia Winkleman came along and I forgot about Norton immediately. Likewise, when Winkleman announced she was stepping away from the station, I wept piteously – only for Romesh Ranganathan to take the reins and for my tears to turn to ones of laughter.
And if Romesh has become the best thing on the station, it is also true that I still find myself listening to Radio 2 at any time of day and night – and mostly still loving it. I will bemoan the chaos and the apparent sense of decline, but Michael Ball, Paddy McGuinness and Elaine Paige turn out to be a perfect Sunday morning and lunchtime trio. Sara Cox is brilliant, Jo Whiley still pushes musical boundaries and I could listen to Mark Radcliffe’s folk show any day of the week.
It doesn’t seem so awfully long ago that Liza Tarbuck first turned up on a Saturday and I wondered whether I’d like her. I may not love her replacement quite as much as I ended up adoring her, but I’m a Radio 2 lifer now – presenters may come and go; I’m here for good.
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