Mair jokes the BBC will close when he leaves after 31 years
BROADCASTER AND radio presenter Eddie Mair is leaving the BBC after more than 30 years at the corporation.
In his typically wry style, Mair, 52, joked that his departure as the main presenter for Radio 4’s news programme would bring doom to the BBC, but a brilliant chance to shine for his successor.
He said: “It’s 31 years since I joined the BBC, 25 years since I first presented and 20 since it became my main gig. I thought this was the appropriate moment to step out and give someone else a chance, before I’m so old my sentences make no lasagne.
“I’m going to miss the team, and (BBC director-general) Tony Hall’s aftershave. I realise the BBC will close down without me and there will be a run on the pound but I can’t stay in an organisation that refused to let me host
I bought a jacket and everything.
“I’m truly grateful to the BBC, however, for being given more opportunities over the years than I deserved. My apologies to listeners for all the things I’ve said that I shouldn’t have, and all the things I should have said that I didn’t. Whoever comes next will be getting the best job in the BBC and I honestly wish them the very best.”
He later tweeted supporters: “Thank you for all the kind words. I appreciate them. But there are journalists in the world who are being shot, jailed, held hostage or forced to work with @corrie_ corfield. I’m only changing jobs. So please do something about them. (Not Corrie. She’s lovely. Mainly).”
His last show at the helm of the flagship evening news programme will be on August 17. Fran Unsworth, director of BBC News, said the hugely popular Mair has had a “fantastic career” at the corporation, adding: “Eddie has delivered outstanding journalism and created a real bond with the audience through his mixture of warmth, incisive questioning and knowing when to listen in order to get the very best out of his guests. He is one of the outstanding broadcasters of his generation and his new employer is very lucky to have him. Eddie leaves with our thanks and everyone at the BBC wishes him well for the future.”
Mair joined as a regular cohost in 1998 and became the sole presenter in 2003. He has won the Sony Awards for Speech Broadcaster of the Year and News Journalist of the Year and helped the programme to win a Sony Gold award in the Interactive category in 2007.