If BBC can ditch DJ Ken, nobody over 60 is safe

THE NEW YEAR is barely three weeks old and already we’ve seen some devastating departures in sport, politics and radio. And the great British public is baffled.

- Liz Kershaw

Ronaldo stunned us by swapping clubs for an obscure shirt in sunny Saudi, Gareth Bale hung up his boots to retire, and New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern has suddenly packed up as the most powerful female politician Down Under.

But last week came a bombshell that really shook the nation.

Radio 2 DJ Ken Bruce, 71, quit the most popular show on Europe’s biggest radio station, taking everyone’s favourite quiz with him. Why Ken?

What prompted a radio institution to sabotage his own career by joining a rival commercial station?

Neither Ken nor I have been sporting professionals under constant scrutiny who – as middle age approaches – feel their fitness flagging as they pass their peak.

Nor have we been nagged by a Wag who simply can’t take another wet winter living in Wilmslow.

But having worked in the same BBC HQ that’s been Ken’s den for over 31 years, I can tell you that to walk out “willingly” (as we are supposed to believe) on a hit radio show that you love is nothing to do with burn-out or “having enough in the tank” which Jacinda cited when she jacked in her job.

Being a radio DJ mainly demands turning up on time, dressed how you like, to sit in a comfy chair with a hot cuppa and talking between tunes that you know a bit about, and being able to read emails with one eye and keep the other on the clock.