Chris Evans makes radio comeback

Chris Evans will host BBC Radio 2's 1400-1700 Saturday slot

Chris Evans has signed up to present a weekly show on BBC Radio 2, his first regular presenting job for four years.

The former BBC Radio 1 and Virgin Radio host will front a new three-hour show featuring music and chat on Saturday afternoons from September.

He will join Jonathan Ross and Dermot O'Leary on Radio 2's Saturday line-up.

Station controller Lesley Douglas said: "Chris is one of the UK's most innovative broadcasters and I'm delighted that he is joining Radio 2."

Evans has hosted a string of one-off shows in recent months, including Radio 2's Live 8 coverage, bank holiday specials for the station and UK Radio Aid for commercial stations in aid of tsunami relief.

Unpredictable

The former Channel 4 presenter also returned to TV as host of the Brit Awards in February.

Evans, one of the UK's most celebrated but unpredictable broadcasting talents, disappeared from the limelight after being sacked as Virgin Radio's breakfast host in 2001.

Evans presented his first national BBC shows in the early 1990s

He failed to turn up for work five days in a row. He also presented Radio 1's breakfast show from 1995-97, but left when his demand for a four-day week was refused.

He recently said he was ready for a comeback - but only if the right show came along and it did not mean having to work every day.

"The less you do, the more you enjoy it and make a good job of it," he told a newspaper last month. "I've turned down a lot of things that are on the air at the moment."

He has signed a seven-month contract with Radio 2 to host the 1400-1700 slot.

Ross and O'Leary will stay on the Saturday schedule, with Richard Allinson likely to make way.