Radio 2 really needs Sara Cox

Sara Cox’s new job as host of Radio 2’s Breakfast Show has been a long time coming. Twenty-seven years as a radio presenter, even longer as a TV host (she started on Channel 4’s The Girlie Show in 1996), Cox has been waiting in the wings for years, as she acknowledged from the moment her first show started on Monday. Banging straight in with Lizzo’s About Damn Time and Finally, by CeCe Peniston, she quipped: “No message in the music, don’t be silly!”

Other presenters might have made a big deal of how grateful they were to get the job, of hoping the listeners would come along with them on their new journey, how they couldn’t sleep the night before for nerves. Cox’s predecessor, Scott Mills, did this, as did Emma Willis when she replaced Zoe Ball on her Saturday show. Not Coxy. “It’s huge but I’m ready,” she said in a promotional interview. “The minute I open my mic, I’ll be fine.”

And she was. Her zip and flare kept the pace up, even when things didn’t quite go right. On Monday a sweet caller, Ruth, tried her hand at a brand new quiz, Let’s Hear It For The Noise, where Cox played a selection of sound snippets, from car horns to cartoon characters’ catchphrases to famous Radio 2 hosts speaking, for the listener to identify. Poor Ruth only got one right. “It all happened so fast!” she said.

It did, because everything about this show is fast. On Tuesday, another new feature also went wrong. Based on Totally Teavoted from Cox’s afternoon show, Surprise and Shine has a simple premise: Cox calls a listener and they have to say a particular sentence to win some Sara Cox socks. But after two rings, the listener’s mobile went to voicemail, listing their number and asking callers to leave a message. Cox, not rudely but firmly, shouted instructions to her producer. “Dip the number – I’m normally in charge of this! – dip the number, so they don’t get loads of calls. Right, whack it back up again now, so I can hear.” She left a voice message for William, the listener, and played a track. By the time the track ended, William had responded. “My phone didn’t ring! Please call again, I want some socks!”

But Cox had moved on, banging through her jam-packed show, slaloming through the obstacles like a chatty downhill skier. Signed, Sealed and Delivered (listeners’ small wins); the Good the Bad and the Cuddly (news stories); Kids in the Car (voice notes from kids going to school), all came and went successfully. Cox has actual instruments in the studio with her, such as musical chimes, which she uses as punchlines and occasionally tip the show into “quack quack oops” territory. Too much tooting of a clown horn recalls Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s Smashy and Nicey mockumentary, where Nicey keeps on parpin’, a manic look on his face.

Parping aside, Cox is one of the most charismatic presenters on UK radio, and her delight in her new job is infectious. Her pre-recorded interviews with Tom Hanks on Monday and Olivia Rodrigo on Wednesday were top-notch, Cox gently teasing and cajoling the stars, while never forgetting the listener. She got Hanks to talk as Woody from Toy Story to two non-verbal kids whose talking skills had been helped by the character. “You’ve got a friend in me,” said Hanks, and I found myself welling up.

Over the past couple of years Radio 2 has fumbled the management of some of their other big beasts. Mills, who seemed firmly established as breakfast host, was suddenly removed in March because of a long-closed 2017 sexual misconduct case (the BBC discovered the complainant was under the age of 16). He is rumoured to be mounting a legal challenge to his dismissal.

And Zoe Ball, the breakfast show host before Mills, who left of her own accord (she wanted to spend more time with her teenage daughter), was treated sniffily. The BBC gave her minor hosting roles on Radio 2 and then didn’t offer her the Strictly job, which seems mad to me. Ball responded by creating and co-hosting Dig It, with Jo Whiley, immediately one of the most popular podcasts out there (it’s just had a triumphant live show at the Crossed Wires podcast festival), and by signing up to Greatest Hits Radio to host their afternoon show, which starts in September. What with those losses, plus Bob Harris retiring after 56 years due to cancer, and afternoon show host Trevor Nelson taking time off for illness, Radio 2 really needs Sara Cox and her edgy, hilarious, come-along-for-the-ride talents. Long may she reign.

Leaving the BBC is a topic discussed by another excellent ex-BBC-er, Annie Macmanus, on a lovely new strand, A Few Things I’ve Learnt. Created by two ex-Woman’s Hour producers, Sophie Powling and Abby Hollick (Hollick made the wonderful interview show Duvet Days), these are short, neatly edited pieces where interesting people are asked three questions about parenting. What’s been the toughest challenge you’ve faced as a parent? What did you learn about yourself? What soothing words do you wish you’d heard at the time?

We don’t hear those questions, we just receive the insights of interviewees such as Macmanus (who explains how leaving her 6Music show transformed her relationship with her sons), writer Oliver Burkeman, comedian Ria Lina and many others. Author Catherine Newman on how she and her daughter got through her daughter being bullied is an exceptionally moving listen, but I recommend all of these shows. It’s amazing how much insight and emotion can be packed into seven minutes.

Photograph by BBC