Adrian Chiles confirmed in BBC Radio 5 Live slot

Adrian Chiles has been confirmed as the permanent host of BBC Radio 5 Live’s weekday mid-morning show on Thursdays and Fridays following the departure of Emma Barnett.

Naga Munchetty has taken over the slot from Monday to Wednesday.

Chiles already hosted a mid-morning show on the station on Friday and now he also takes to the airwaves on Thursdays, from 10am to 1pm.

BBC Radio 5 Live controller Heidi Dawson said: “Adrian is a wonderful broadcaster who our audience trust and respect.

“He has that unique ability to put listeners at ease and make them smile, whilst remaining relentless in his questioning of those in positions of power.”

Munchetty made her debut on Monday, promising her listeners they would soon “get to know each other”.

Her show featured interviews with the team behind the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, the refugee housed by Gary Lineker, and pregnant woman expecting during the pandemic.

Barnett hit the headlines this week when actress Kelechi Okafor pulled out of Woman’s Hour, which Barnett now presents.

Okafor had been due to speak to Barnett about the Me Too movement but tweeted saying she had decided not to appear, after overhearing the presenter “talking shit about me to the producers”.

Barnett issued a statement on Twitter saying she “stands by my questions to my team and to Kelechi”.

It came after Okafor was reported to have said it was wrong for presenter Reggie Yates to apologise for comments he made about Jewish people in 2017, which led him to step down as a host of Top Of The Pops.

Chiles began his new role on Thursday.