An awful lot has happened in the past six weeks.
Kamala Harris took on Donald Trump in their first and only presidential TV debate.
Sir Keir Starmer has realised that running the country isn’t quite as easy as it looks.
Oasis upset lots of fans.
Tupperware has gone bust!
And Zoe Ball, the BBC’s highest paid presenter – on nearly £1million a year – has been off on extended unexplained leave, leaving the BBC scrabbling to fill her prime-time breakfast slot on Radio 2 with a rotating band of co-presenters, while everyone else has been asking: ‘Where on earth is Zoe?’
Zoe Ball , the BBC ’s highest paid presenter – on nearly £1million a year – has been off on extended unexplained leave (pictured back in Radio 2 studio on Monday)
On Sunday, Zoe announced she’d be back and, yesterday, there she was on the radio, at 6.30am sharp. Bright and breezy, if not quite as manically bouncy as usual, after battling the rainy drive from Brighton in her Mini
But not any more.
On Sunday, Zoe announced she’d be back and, yesterday, there she was on the radio, at 6.30am sharp. Bright and breezy, if not quite as manically bouncy as usual, after battling the rainy drive from Brighton in her Mini.
‘It’s the happy wanderer!’ she says, by way of introduction. ‘I have wandered back. How was your summer?
‘What have I missed? Text me – I’ve missed you… No, I didn’t go to Turkey for a new face and teeth,’ she jokes.
We’re off on ‘Maximum Music Monday’ with Earth, Wind & Fire and a lot of chat about ‘mum crushes’, Strictly and the 50th anniversary of Ceefax.
There are also fulsome thanks to her valiant stand-ins who’ve had to miss their own shows and cancel holidays, love for her ‘gorgeous’ audience, and chat about how thrilled she is to be back.
‘So much has gone on since I was last here,’ she says. ‘I don’t know where to start.’
The BBC scrabblied to fill her prime-time breakfast slot on Radio 2 with a rotating band of co-presenters, while everyone else has been asking: ‘Where on earth is Zoe?’ (pictured upon her return on Monday)
‘It’s the happy wanderer!’ she says, by way of introduction. ‘I have wandered back. How was your summer?
Instead, we hear what her listeners have been up to.
How Lisa from Westcliff-on-Sea, in Essex, has got engaged to her gorgeous man Darrell.
How someone’s daughter Poppy has got engaged to a chap called Joe.
How Sophie, calling from her commute, has got a new job.
And how a group of rowers from Walberswick have got sore palms.
Which is, of course, all very interesting, but it doesn’t quite deal with the elephant in the room. Which is taking up quite a bit of space.
Not just because Zoe is paid so much – £4,750 per episode – and hosts the UK’s most popular breakfast radio show.
Or because, for weeks now, her 6.4 million listeners have been sharing their concerns about her extended absence on social media.
Some of them properly worried. Others a bit bemused. And an increasing number rather angry about what they see as a waste of licence fee funds amid a cover-up.
It is all a bit odd because, normally, when presenters need to take time off, the BBC is very good at saying why.
Usually, if it’s for personal reasons – as with Lauren Laverne and Jamie Theakston (who are both undergoing treatment for cancer) – they tend to make an announcement, let their listeners know what’s going on. And everyone wishes them well and leaves them alone.
It perhaps didn’t help that, every so often, there’d be a ‘Zoe sighting’
And then her son Woody took to social media to say he’d ‘stepped up’ to support her lately
Of course, if poor Zoe, 53, has been having a mid-life wobble and needed some compassionate leave, it 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?
Occasionally, presenters take time off to do other jobs – appear on Strictly Come Dancing, present other TV shows, or maybe spend a few weeks celebrity DJ-ing.
But this time Zoe was away for six weeks, accompanied by a deafening silence and what feels like a frantic juggle behind the scenes.
It perhaps didn’t help that, every so often, there’d be a ‘Zoe sighting’. Shopping in Brighton’s Churchill Square. Larking about over a coffee with her ex-husband DJ Norman Cook (stage name Fatboy Slim) in Hove.
The Mail revealed that she’d moved house during her time off.
And then her son Woody took to social media to say he’d ‘stepped up’ to support her lately – though perhaps some of this was remotely, because most of his summer seems to have been spent partying at festivals.
Of course, if poor Zoe, 53, has been having a mid-life wobble and needed some compassionate leave, it would be completely understandable – her mother, Julia Peckham, died earlier this year after a horribly short battle with pancreatic cancer. But why not just say?
Perhaps we’ll never know what’s really been going on behind the scenes. But it’s nice to know she’s fine.
So welcome back, Zoe! And let’s just hope you’re here to stay this time.
