UK Edition
John Humphrys returns to radio as he joins Classic FM
John Humphrys will return to the airwaves when he joins Classic FM to guest present the breakfast show this month.
The veteran broadcaster, 76, will stand in for regular host Tim Lihoreau to take the helm of the station's More Music Breakfast from October 28.
The move comes following his departure from Radio 4’s flagship show the Today programme last month, signalling the end of his 32 year BBC news career.
Classic FM said they are welcoming one of Britain’s best-known and most distinguished broadcasters to its presenter line-up for a “very different” breakfast show.
Humphrys will now swap berating politicians for three early hours of classical music during his short time with the station, expected to last until Friday 1st November.
For fans and critics alike, the show has been promised to be a “more relaxing and calmer programme than the one Humphrys presented on BBC Radio 4”.
Humphrys said: “I’m struggling to think of a greater contrast with my old job: the bliss of Beethoven and Brahms instead of Brexit and backstops! Maybe there really is another world out there!”
Sam Jackson, senior managing editor at Classic FM, added: "John Humphrys is one of this country's genuinely iconic broadcasters.
"For more than 30 years, millions of people have woken up to him every morning, so we are thrilled that John will now be hosting a very different breakfast programme on Classic FM.
"It's a privilege to welcome him to the UK's biggest classical music station and I know that our listeners will really enjoy tuning in next week."
Humphrys’s career at the BBC
Humphrys joined the BBC in 1966 as the district reporter for Liverpool and the Northwest.
After a stint as a foreign correspondent, Humphrys travelled to New York, where he was sent to open the first TV news bureau there and broke the story of Richard Nixon’s resignation. In 1980 he returned to London to take up the post of BBC Diplomatic Correspondent.
By 1981 Humphrys became the main presenter of the BBC's flagship Nine O'Clock News. Six years later, in January 1987, he began presenting Today.
Whilst there his interrogative interviewing style became renowned . He interviewed every British prime minister from Alec Douglas-Home to his last, Theresa May.
It was to Humphrys that Tony Blair let slip comments relating to Labour’s policy on the general ban on cigarette advertising at sporting events.
Responding to allegations that a £1m donation to Labour from F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone led to Formula 1’s exemption, Blair said: "I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sort of guy, and I am."
On leaving the Today programme
Humphrys announced his departure from the Today programme in February 2019, admitting he should have "quit years ago".
He hung up his headphones for the last time on September 19, after interviewing Tony Blair, Dame Edna Everage and David Cameron. Humphrys marked the occasion by aiming digs at Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson.
He said: "Jeremy Corbyn has not been interviewed on this programme for nearly three years. Boris Johnson hasn’t done a single interview with us since he became prime minister."
"Increasingly, politicians are talking directly to the people via social media so they can choose the questions they answer without being challenged."
At the end of the programme Humphrys thanked his readers, saying: "You really are the backbone of our country. You care about our democracy. I am more proud than I can say that you have put up with me for so long.
"Today matters for tomorrow. And if that’s a rather corny way to end my years on the programme well so be it. And that’s it from me."
The 'sensationally sexy' comment to Moira Stuart
Humphys’s career has not been without controversy - yet some incidents have more potential than others to haunt him. Humphys will co host Classic FM’s More Music Breakfast with Moira Stuart, who he coincidentally propositioned in the 1980s.
When the microphones were off but the visuals were still on air, Humphrys said: "You're the most sensationally sexy lady I know. The best thing we can do is to make mad passionate love in the basement."
Stuart responded by reminding Humphrys that the broadcast was for the deaf, so the audience would have been able to lip-read every single word.
Humphrys later said that it had been "a silly wisecrack".
John Humphrys will present Classic FM's More Music Breakfast from October 28 to November 1 from 6am to 9am.