‘Was he sticking pins in dolls of BBC managers?’: Ken Bruce signs off from Radio 2 after 31 years

It wasn’t hard to read between the lines as the most loved and fluent BBC broadcaster since Terry Wogan played songs about round pegs in square holes and a place far away where people mean what they say

Leaving Radio 2 after 31 years of mornings, Ken Bruce promised a “normal day”. Some hope. He was interviewed by his former sportscaster Garry Richardson on Radio 4’s Today programme in the ministerial grilling slot usually reserved for those who have wrecked the country rather than enriched it. And schedule predecessor Zoe Ball, handing over for the last time at 9.30am, upgraded for the occasion from her default “My lovely!” to “My darling Ken!”

Bruce insists he wasn’t desperate to leave; Radio 2 claims to have been keen for him to stay. But somewhere between sloppy contract negotiations and music playlists rejigged to appeal to something called “mood mums”, the most fluent and loved BBC broadcaster since Sir Terry Wogan was lost to Greatest Hits Radio. Among his eight million weekly Radio 2 listeners, it’s not just the mums who are moody.