Romesh Ranganathan says ‘we will miss Claudia’ as he opens first Radio 2 show

The comedian has taken over Claudia Winkleman’s Saturday morning slot.
PA Archive
Hannah Roberts20 April 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan said “we will all miss Claudia” as he opened his first Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2.

The 46-year-old, who is running the London Marathon on Sunday, has taken over the slot from Strictly Come Dancing and Traitors host Claudia Winkleman, who left the station last month.

The Weakest Link presenter told listeners: “Welcome to my brand new show. This is me Romesh Ranganathan.

“I don’t know if you can tell, I’m very, very nervous because I’m excited. Saturday mornings with me and you, and I want to get to know you.

“I’m brand new to Saturday mornings. I know you guys will be listening to this slot thinking, ‘Oh, am I going to miss Claudia?’

“We all will miss Claudia but I’m here to get to know you, and hopefully, you’ll realise ‘he’s different, but he’s still good’. So I want you to know a bit about me.”

Commenting on his choice of opening song, the 1990 Go West hit King Of Wishful Thinking, the stand-up comedian said: “You might have been surprised.

“I’m a hip hop fan but that is one of my favourite tunes of all time, and the reason I love that song so much is, once I had a terrible, terrible gig.

“It went badly and I just basically played that song over and over again on the whole way back from the gig, just to show that gig. ‘I’ll get over you. I know I will’.”

The Ranganation host also spoke to comedian Rob Beckett, a frequent colleague, during his first Saturday show, which runs from 10am to 1pm.

During the show, London-born Beckett, 38, gave Ranganathan a costume for him to wear during the London Marathon.

He said: “I’ve got you a present Rom, to say well done on your new show and it’s just nice to get someone a present.”

Ranganthan said: “It’s a giant giraffe adult costume.”

He added: “Let’s get to the bottom of that. I mean, it’s just absolutely shameless by you.

“You knew you’re gonna get a plug for your tour.”

Beckett’s upcoming tour is called Giraffe and to promote it he wore an inflatable giraffe costume to the Brit Awards last month.

The comedy pair star in Sky comedy series Rob & Romesh Vs and last year hosted the Bafta TV awards ceremony together.

Ranganathan is also known for BBC One comedy series Avoidance and his Radio 2 series Romesh Ranganathan: For The Love Of Hip Hop.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in