If you want to know who to thank for Zoe Ball’s return to radio nearly two years after she quit the Radio 2 breakfast show to spend more time with her family, look no further than her daughter Nell.
A young woman who apparently says things like, “‘Seriously, Mum, when are you going back to work?’”
You can understand Nell’s concern. She will be aware that Ball’s default is grafting. Since she first appeared on television and radio in the 1990s – on Radio 1, where, in 1997, she became the first woman to present its breakfast show, and on TV as presenter of shows like The Big Breakfast, Top of the Pops and Live & Kicking – Ball has been one of our busiest broadcasters.
“Leaving the breakfast show was hard because I loved it, but it just felt like the right time,” Ball says, not just referring to Nell’s GCSEs. In early 2024, Ball’s mother Julia, from whom she was estranged for much of her childhood, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died three months later.
Where life went for Ball, as far as her work was concerned, was into Dig It, the podcast she co-hosts with her friend and former BBC colleague Jo Whiley. So-called because it’s about music and gardening and things they like, Dig It has the pair sharing their experiences, insights and wisdom on subjects as varied and intimate as grief, the menopause, Zoe’s relationship with her roses and Jo’s relationship with her sister, Frances.
“On the radio, it was always about making it about the listeners and not whanging on too much about yourself. But part of being a broadcaster is that things in your life resonate with your listeners. [On Dig It] we have discussed things that people are going through. It can be moving at times, and sometimes it can be very silly and very fun.”
Which brings us to Greatest Hits where she joins the line-up of BBC alumni, sandwiched between Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo, both of whom are “great mates who I adore”. “When the call came, it felt like a gorgeous gift and fabulous timing. Lots of my friends in commercial radio had said to me, ‘It’s fun out here!’”
“I’ve left Radio 2 but it doesn’t feel as if I’ve left-left the BBC. I’m grateful to the BBC because they changed my life on numerous occasions and looked after me. They continue to do amazing things but there is a lot of great stuff happening in commercial radio.”
Ball sounds genuinely excited about returning to broadcasting daily. There are only a couple of minor anxieties in her life, one in the rearview mirror and one ongoing. There is the fret of what she’s done with her “time off”. “What have I achieved? I’ve been here for my daughter. That’s enough. I’ve done some gardening and sorted out the loft.”
That aside, Ball is content with her life now. She wouldn’t like to be young today? “I couldn’t do it again,” Ball reflects. “I’m really relieved that in the 90s we got to live those lives without camera phones, without much record of the wild times. I’m grateful for the fun I had. The world can be quite a frightening place and as you get older, you lose more friends and family.
Listen to Zoe Ball on Greatest Hits Radio, Monday–Friday at 1.00pm.
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