A lot has happened in the past six weeks.
President Biden has agreed to resign.
Sir Keir Starmer realises that running the country is not as easy as it seems.
Oasis angered many fans.
Tupperware is bankrupt!
Zoe Ball, the BBC’s highest paid presenter – with a salary of almost £1million a year – has gone on unexplained leave (pictured back in the Radio 2 studio on Monday)
On Sunday Zoe announced she was coming back and yesterday she was on the radio, at 6.30 sharp. Bright and windy, although not as manically jumpy as usual, after braving the rainy drive from Brighton in her Mini
And Zoe Ball, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter (who earns almost £1m a year), has gone on long-term, unexplained leave. The BBC now has to fill its prime-time morning slot on Radio 2 with a rotating cast of co-presenters, while everyone is asking, ‘Where on earth is Zoe?’
But that is no longer the case.
On Sunday Zoe announced she was coming back and yesterday she was on the radio, at 6.30 sharp. Bright and windy, although not as manically jumpy as usual, after braving the rainy drive from Brighton in her Mini.
“It’s the lucky wanderer!” she says, by way of introduction. “I’ve wandered back. How was your summer?”
“What did I miss? Text me – I missed you… No, I didn’t go to Turkey for a new face and teeth,” she jokes.
We go to ‘Maximum Music Monday’ with Earth, Wind & Fire and talk a lot about ‘mum crushes’, Strictly and the 50th anniversary of Ceefax.
There’s also lots of thanks to her brave stand-ins who had to miss their own shows and cancel their holidays, love for her ‘beautiful’ audience and talk about how happy she is to be back.
“So much has happened since I was last here,” she says. “I don’t know where to begin.”
The BBC tried to fill its primetime breakfast slot on Radio 2 with a rotating cast of co-presenters, while everyone else was wondering: ‘Where on earth is Zoe?’ (pictured upon her return on Monday)
“It’s the lucky wanderer!” she says, by way of introduction. “I’ve wandered back. How was your summer?”
Instead, we hear what her listeners are doing.
How Lisa from Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, got engaged to her handsome husband Darrell.
How someone’s daughter Poppy is engaged to a guy named Joe.
How Sophie, who was on her way to work, called and said she had gotten a new job.
And how a group of rowers from Walberswick have developed sore palms.
That is all very interesting, of course, but it does not entirely address the elephant in the room, which takes up quite a bit of space.
Not just because Zoe is paid so much – £4,750 per episode – and presents the UK’s most popular morning radio show.
Or because her 6.4 million listeners have been expressing concerns about her prolonged absence from social media for weeks.
Some of them were rightly concerned. Others were a little bewildered. And a growing number were quite angry about what they saw as a waste of license fees amid a cover-up.
It’s all a bit odd, because when presenters have to take time off, the BBC usually has a very good way of explaining it.
Usually, if it’s for personal reasons – like Lauren Laverne and Jamie Theakston (who are both undergoing cancer treatment) – they make an announcement, let their listeners know what’s going on, and everyone wishes them well and leaves them alone.
It may not have helped that there was the occasional ‘Zoe sighting’
And then her son Woody took to social media to say he had been “supporting” her lately
Of course, if poor Zoe, 53, is having a midlife crisis and needs some compassionate leave, that would be completely understandable – her mother, Julia Peckham (pictured), died earlier this year after a horribly short battle with pancreatic cancer. But why not just say so?
Sometimes presenters take time off to do other work: they appear on Strictly Come Dancing, present other TV shows or perhaps they spend a few weeks DJing as a celebrity.
But this time, Zoe was gone for six weeks, accompanied by a deafening silence and what felt like a frantic battle behind the scenes.
It may not have helped that there was the occasional ‘Zoe sighting’. Shopping in Brighton’s Churchill Square. Having a good old coffee with her ex-husband DJ Norman Cook (stage name Fatboy Slim) in Hove.
According to the Mail, she had moved during her time off.
And then her son Woody took to social media to say he’d been supporting her lately – though that may not have been entirely true, as he spent most of the summer partying at festivals.
Of course, if poor Zoe, 53, is having a midlife slump and needs some compassionate leave, that would be perfectly understandable – her mother, Julia Peckham, died earlier this year after a horribly short battle with pancreatic cancer. But why not just say so?
We may never know what really goes on behind the scenes, but it’s nice to know she’s okay.
Welcome back, Zoe! And let’s hope you stay this time.