Long time presenter of BBC Radio 2's The Best of Jazz, Humphrey Lyttelton, is to take a break from his programme, returning later this year. He has hosted the show non-stop for the last 40 years, so he is long ovedue a rest. The last show before the break will be on Monday 2 April.
The Best Of Jazz will then be broadcast as a 13-week series twice a year. Humph will continue to chair BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Humph says: "On April 2nd I shall be ending the unbroken run of The Best Of Jazz. I say at once that this is solely my own decision. I've presented The Best Of Jazz for almost 40 years continuously, at a rate of around 50 a year, choosing and scripting some 20,000 items and I now want to have a bit more time for other things, my own still active and flourishing band, high among them.
"So if this announcement has summoned the word 'retirement' to your minds, dismiss it at once. I shall be back in July with a three month series of similar programmes, but this time it will be as a short distance, rather than a marathon, runner."
In 1993 Humphrey received a Sony Gold Award for services to broadcasting and at the inaugural BBC Jazz Awards in 2001 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.
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