Chris Evans’s departure gives the BBC an opportunity

Ican’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m really going to miss Chris Evans. In an emotional announcement on his Radio 2 breakfast show yesterday, the presenter said he loved his job but wanted to “keep climbing” and do something new, which apparently means a return to his old Nineties stomping ground on Virgin Radio. He leaves in December.

I confess I was sceptical when Evans – who is an acquired taste – first took over from Terry Wogan in 2010. But the show, despite always having the atmosphere of a well-kept secret, has – rather amazingly – become the most listened-to radio slot in Europe, with audience figures regularly topping nine million.

Thoughts immediately turn to who will replace him, not least because his departure is an opportunity for the BBC to cure its ongoing headache over pay inequality. Hosting the Breakfast Show is one of the biggest gigs at the corporation, and accordingly Evans is the second-highest-paid BBC presenter, worth

£1.6 million a year. After the mortifying revelation that John Humphrys was being paid five times as much as Sarah Montague at the Today Programme, the BBC is well aware of the need to even out its radio talent pool.

For its part, Radio 2 has come under fire for having too many male presenters and a rather same-y daytime schedule, although Evans’s show was one of the highlights of the line-up. In contrast to his brash TV persona, his Radio 2 show has always had a warm, lively, family feel. He has the rare ability to seem as if he genuinely cares about his listeners’ lives, particularly their children.

And that’s what’s important on radio. It’s the most intimate medium there is: it’s the voice in your ear as you wake up, the extra passenger in your car on the way to work, and a companion in the kitchen as you cook dinner. Radio presenters are people we meet every day, and after a while they feel like friends. On live radio, listeners can even ring in and become part of the conversation. We invite radio hosts into our lives and we care about them.

So who else could we trust to join us over breakfast? There are plenty of good candidates. One standout is Simon Mayo, who deserves his own slot again after being forced to share a seat with Jo Whiley on Drivetime in an attempt to massage diversity statistics.

Personally though, I think Radio 2 should follow the lead of Doctor Who. The year is 2018, and it’s high time for a female Chris Evans.

The most obvious successor is Sara Cox, who was a gloriously fizzy breakfast show presenter on Radio 1 – and I’m not just saying that because she once read out an email I sent in when I was a teenager. Cox has regularly filled in for Evans when he has been away and been a hit with his audience, probably because she shares Evans’s welcoming and buoyant outlook, with an edge of mischievous humour. Zoë Ball, Liza Tarbuck, or Claudia Winkleman – already the BBC’S highestprofile, and best-paid female employee – would also be canny choices. Or perhaps Lauren Laverne, currently broadening her CV by sitting in for Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs.

Whoever takes over will need a big personality to take on the responsibility of setting the tone for the day. Man or woman, nine million regular listeners will have high expectations.