Dan Walker will present his final BBC Breakfast this (Tuesday) morning, May 17, after being a fixture on the show since 2016. The 45-year-old, who previously fronted the corporation’s flagship breakfast show with Louise Minchin, announced his departure earlier this month.
He leaves the BBC to join Channel 5 to become the lead anchor on 5 News. Walker also previously presented the BBC’s Football Focus show from 2009 to 2021.
He took part in the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing, revealing that he signed up for the show to do something “fun” and have a “giggle” after reporting on difficult news stories during the pandemic. Channel 5 said his new remit will see him presenting recently relaunched flagship news bulletin 5 News, as well as “fronting a range of new programming on the channel”.
Beginning his final week at the BBC, Walker said he was “very sad” and posted a video on social media using a viral snapchat filter that gives people a permanent sad face. He revealed co-presenter Sally Nugent, who took over from Minchin in September 2021, had wanted “absolutely nothing to do with (the video)”.
He previously told Nugent that it would be nice to be getting slightly more sleep in his new role but that the decision to leave had also been a “big” and “sad” one. “It is nice but, as I have explained to you, it’s also quite… it was a big decision and it’s quite a sad one as well,” he told her on the programme.
“The other thing to say is thank you to everybody who sent so many lovely messages, and one thing I have realised, because lots of people want to chat to you, don’t they, about this programme, because it means an awful lot to an awful lot of people, it’s reminded me how special this show is and how much everybody who watches it loves it, so thank you very much to everyone who’s come up and said some lovely things.”
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea
