By Lydia Spencer-Elliott

Copyright independent

Veteran broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has said he left Radio 4’s In Our Time programme before he was pushed.

The 85-year-old announced he was leaving the Radio 4 show, which he has fronted since its launch in 1998, earlier this month, dubbing his long-running position a “great privilege and a pleasure”.

A new presenter is yet to be announced and Bragg said it was “none of my business anymore” who takes over the show, adding it would not matter “in the slightest” if his replacement was a woman.

Bragg, who is now set to present a new series for the BBC in 2026, said leaving Radio 4 after 26 years on air was “the right path for me”.

“One way or another, we’ve all got to go sometime. And I just thought, I’ll go now. I’ll go before I’m pushed,” he told Radio Times.

In Our Time saw Bragg guide listeners through expert discussions on history, religion, culture, science and philosophy for more than a thousand episodes.

Asked if he ever regretted his decision to step down, he said: “Sometimes I’ve thought, ‘What a stupid thing to do,’ but mostly I think this is the right path for me.”

Bragg hoped the programme had served as a counterbalance to “disastrous, utterly stupid and destructive” anti-scientific conspiracy theories circulating on social media.

“It’s disappointing that quite a bit of our public life is ignorant – but we’re not ignorant,” he said.

The presenter, who has suffered a string of health issues including prostate cancer, pneumonia and melanoma, said he made up his mind to leave In Our Time by July.

“I found it quite a tricky one to do and later in the summer I had one of those moments where you think, ‘Well, which path do you take through the woods?’” he said. “Then you take one, and that’s it.”

Lord Bragg first joined the BBC in 1961 as a general trainee and has gone on to work for the World Service and Radio 4’s Start the Week, as well as a range of arts and culture programmes.

Later this year, Radio 4 will air some of Lord Bragg’s most memorable In Our Time episodes to celebrate over two decades on the programme.