No prizes for guessing why the BBC is losing greats like Jenni

A RAPPER called ‘DMO Deejay’ brought the M60 to a standstill as he and his boy racer fans took videos of themselves while they blocked the motorway. What were the police doing during this outrage that delayed motorists for 90 minutes? Probably on the hard shoulder taking the knee.

For me, the clocks will all stop at 10am on october 1 when Jenni Murray presents her last Woman’s Hour. The woman with an iron wit in a velvet voice is giving up her beloved job after 33 years to write more books, present new radio shows and enjoy her 70s with her husband John and their two sons.

I wish Jenni well. She has long been a heroine of mine. For millions of us, she has been the calm, clever, considered friend we always wanted to hear from and listen to.

And yet Jenni’s also a forensic interviewer. She was the one who asked Monica Lewinsky why she hadn’t washed Bill Clinton’s parting gift to her from that blue dress.

Then of Hillary Clinton, why she’d stayed with a man who had cheated on her. Margaret Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto — Jenni interviewed everyone who was anyone.

She became the friend and commentator of womankind. We travelled with her when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and lost her hair. We found echoes of our own lives when she described her battles with her mum and with her weight.

Many agreed with her when she was bold enough to venture into the gladiatorial arena of trans women, saying ‘be trans, be proud — but don’t call yourself a “real woman” ’. The LGBT lobby was enraged, and I wonder if that was the moment Jenni realised the Beeb was no longer her natural home.

The great personalities of the BBC — Jenni, Libby Purves, Jeremy Paxman, John Humphrys, both the Dimblebys, Andrew Neil — are disappearing before our eyes. They’re being replaced by navel-gazing, metropolitan chat-show hosts obsessed with a diversity agenda that ignores the views of the majority.

Jenni is the best kind of feminist. She has been fearless, principled, provocative and brave, a brilliant broadcaster with the ability to touch millions of us.

And I know for certain what a tough job it will be to replace her. Because I once stood in for Jenni for a few days and I was utter rubbish.

She’ll be the toughest act to follow. If her microphone is taken over by co-presenter Jane Garvey, who has perfected the grating tone of the dentist’s drill, it will be the end of the programme.