Graham Norton’s Virgin Radio replacements revealed as Strictly star and Celebrity Juice legend land weekend slots

Graham Norton’s replacements for Virgin Radio have been unveiled after he bid an emotional farewell to his Virgin Radio listeners in February.

The 61-year-old star made the shock announcement just one day before he left, saying he wanted his ‘weekends back’ after 13 years of presenting.

The chat show host, who joined the channel in 2021 after a decade on BBC Radio 2, confirmed he would still ‘appear on the channel from time to time’ after his weekend role ended.

Norton had been hosting weekend shows for 13 years when he joined Virgin Radio in 2021 after a decade at BBC Radio.

Now it has been revealed that former Strictly Come Dancing star Angela Scanlon will host a branded breakfast show on both days from 7am to 10am.

Commenting on the exciting news, Angela said: ‘I know how many of you have dreamed of waking up to my husky, dulcet tones, well dreams come true gang!

‘I get up with you every weekend on Virgin Radio and I’m inappropriately excited. Put the kettle on!’

Celebrity Juice legend Leigh Francis will then host on Saturday from 10am to 1pm, while Tom Allen will host the same slot on Sunday.

TV icons Dick and Dom will take over from 1pm to 4pm on both days and said they are ‘over the moon’ to be joining the team.

It comes after Graham bid an emotional farewell to his Virgin Radio listeners, thanking them for ‘sharing their lives’ as he signed off his final show.

Concluding his final Sunday show on the station, he told his listeners: ‘My final thanks go to you, to you for listening and sharing your life with us.

“We enjoyed hearing your messages and finding out what you’ve been up to, and what you liked, what you didn’t like, what made you happy, what made you sad during those years.

“It has been a privilege to share your weekends here with you for the past three years and two months.”

He also thanked presenter Chris Evans for ‘creating this opportunity’ for him as Norton followed in Evans’ footsteps by moving from Radio 2 to Virgin Radio.

He said: ‘I came here about three and a half years ago and Chris was all excited for me to come and see it, it happened.’

He thanked Virgin bosses and the team for creating nothing but “good items” during his tenure at the station.

Norton looks back: ‘It really is a wonderful place to work up here in the tower.

“They’ve created such a fun atmosphere and I’ve had nothing but fun times here.”

Norton closed the show with the first song he ever performed on Virgin’s airwaves, Madonna’s Hung Up.

He concluded, “Goodbye again, goodbye… Thank you very much for your company this weekend. I hope you enjoyed the shows.”

The Irish presenter kicked off his show last weekend by saying: ‘Here we go, one last gallop through the paddock.’

‘Many thanks to Amy for breakfast. I’m Graham Norton and I’ll be here until 12.30, I promise.’

He said he would ‘kick off’ the show with some Pet Shop Boys music before launching into their hit Always On My Mind.

Virgin Radio presenter Amy Voce, whose show airs before Norton’s, said she is “gutted” he is leaving but believes he deserves his weekends back because he “did a shift”.

Norton read out a number of messages from listeners who said they would miss him, with one admitting they were ‘distraught’ but hoped he would enjoy the lies, to which he replied: ‘I will, out of bed this morning coming was so wonderful, thinking: ‘I’m not doing this next week’.”

His latest show will feature regular segments including Bake Off star Martha Collison cooking up a storm, with the recipe this week being Norton’s favourite: braised tofu udon noodles.

His long-standing host Maria McErlane also joined him for a new edition of Graham’s Guide, in which the pair of listeners attempted to find a solution to their problems.

The final show featured conversations with actor Callum Scott Howells, who stars in new BBC drama The Way, and actress Laura Donnelly, who will appear in West End play The Hills Of California.

Norton kicked off the show with a number of upbeat songs, including Cher’s Believe and Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.

Before launching Dua Lipa’s new single Houdini, he said: ‘This lady was on my chat show on Friday night and I was so impressed with her, she is so effortlessly charming but clearly smart and has a vision and a determination, and she deserves all the success she enjoys.’

At the start of his Sunday show, he shared a selfie of him in the Virgin Radio presenter’s chair on Instagram and wrote: ‘Here we go! One last twist!!

‘Thank you to everyone @virginradiouk and everyone who listened along the way!!! Three more hours – I can’t swear!!!’

During his Saturday morning show, Norton explained his decision to leave, saying, “I worked weekends between here and the old place for thirteen years, and my life has changed a little bit, so I just want my weekends back.”

He confirmed that fellow Irish presenter Angela Scanlon, who competed on Strictly Come Dancing last year, will fill in his time from 9.30am to 12.30pm in the coming weeks before ‘several announcements’ are made about who will take over the time permanently.

Scanlon was among those to react to the news, saying ‘I miss you already’ on Norton’s joint Instagram post with Virgin Radio.

Norton joined Radio 2 in 2010 on the Saturday show from 10am to 1pm, taking over from Jonathan Ross.

He moved to Virgin Radio in 2021 and his BBC slot went to Claudia Winkleman. The Strictly Come Dancing and Traitors presenter will leave the show in March after saying she wanted to spend more time with her growing children.

Norton also hosts a Friday evening chat show of the same name on BBC One and is central to the broadcaster’s Eurovision coverage.