Long-standing BBC Radio 2 presenter Vanessa Feltz has announced she is leaving her Early Breakfast Show and London Breakfast Show. The presenter is turning off her alarm clock once and for all after nearly 20 years.
Vanessa began presenting the Radio 2 Early Breakfast Show in January 2011, from 5am-6.30am, which was extended to 4am from January 2021. Listeners have tuned in over the years as Vanessa has entertained with the news of the day, Famous Last Words, Jolly Good Fellows, The Feltz Philological Challenge and Early Bird Earworms.
Before taking over the breakfast show, she presented a mid-morning phone-in show on the station for 10 years, and from 2001 presented a mid-afternoon phone-in show.
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The 60-year-old will present her last Radio 2 Early Morning Breakfast Show on Friday 29 July. After taking a well-earned two-week break, Vanessa will cover for Jeremy Vine for two weeks as planned, and bid farewell to Radio 2 listeners on Friday 26 August.
Vanessa said: "I have loved every moment with my Radio 2 ‘Early Birds’ and will miss my Lovely Listeners, Jolly Good Fellows and beloved friends and colleagues at Radio 2 with all my heart. However, after almost 12 blissful years, I now need to step down to catch up on a much needed decade’s deficit of beauty sleep!
"It's been an honour and privilege to be the Breakfast voice of BBC Radio London for 20 years and although I’m leaving the show, I’ll continue to expect hugs from my lovely listeners when I see them on the streets of London!
"I will enjoy a dollop of energy-boosting shut-eye to swing from zip-lines with my three effervescent grandchildren and frolic with my fiancé Ben, who irritatingly remains 10 years younger than me!"
Head of Radio 2, Helen Thomas, said: "For almost 12 years, Vanessa has made her live weekday Early Breakfast Show her very own kingdom, and I'd like to thank her wholeheartedly for the thousands of middle-of-the-night starts she’s made to entertain the Radio 2 listeners.
"On behalf of them, as well as everyone in Wogan House, I'd like to send Lady V our very best wishes for the future."
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