Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs goes on air 'without the chief' (2024)

Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs opened with a tribute to the BBC Radio 2 presenter, who died earlier this week.

Presenting a special episode of the show, Liza Tarbuck said the show was going on but "without the chief".

She also read out tributes from listeners to the DJ.

Wright's final show was last Sunday, when he hosted a pre-recorded special Valentine's Day edition of his Love Songs programme. He passed away on Monday at the age of 69.

Wright joined the BBC in the 1970s, and went on to host the afternoon shows on Radio 1 and Radio 2 for more than four decades, and also presented Top of the Pops on BBC One.

Sunday's show was one of a series of BBC tributes to the beloved presenter, including a special edition of his Pick of the Pops show on Saturday that was presented by his former Radio 1 colleague Gary Davies.

Tarbuck opened the show with George Michael and Mary J. Blige's song As, saying "this is Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs but without the chief, without our genius friend."

"So while you're getting a tissue, I think it would be lovely if you lit him a candle. I make no apologies if I get upset over the next two hours and I don't think you should either."

It was inevitable that this week's Sunday Love Songs would be dominated by listener tributes to Wright - as he had developed the format himself as a programme where he could read out listener emails and letters exactly as they were written.

It was a show that was dear to the presenter's heart. After his 15-year stint on Radio 1 ended, he worked in commercial radio for a short while but then joined Radio 2 as part of the weekend line-up and launched Sunday Love Songs in 1996.

When he was subsequently given the Radio 2 afternoon show - which he hosted for 23 years - he agreed a special deal that allowed him to also present Sunday Love Songs each week. And even when he was replaced by Scott Mills on the afternoon show in 2022, he again continued his Sunday stint until the day before his death.

So for the tribute show, Tarbuck read out several messages from loyal listeners who had their requests played by Wright over the years.

"Steve read out every request as if he was talking to a friend - thank you Steve. We're going to miss you so much," one fan wrote in.

"We listened to Steve while we were getting ready for our wedding, and amazingly we got a beautiful mention which my parents had sneakily sent in," noted another.

"Our videographers added this sound bite to the end of a special memories reel that they'd made, so Steve is always going to be part of the 'best day of our lives'. He created magic with his show."

Tarbuck became emotional while reading a tribute from someone who had listened to the show for years with their husband.

"On Sunday mornings, my husband, also called Steve, would dance in the kitchen while our two daughters would cringe with embarrassment," they wrote.

"When me and Steve were dancing in the kitchen last week - we would never have imagined that that would have been our last dance with the amazing Steve Wright. He was part of our family".

Earlier on Sunday, Janey Lee Grace, his co-presenter throughout the entire 23 years of the Radio 2 afternoon show on Radio 2, remembered him as "very funny" and "incredibly witty".

"[For] the majority of celebrities and authors and experts and actors who came in, it was their favourite show to do, because he made it such fun...it was like having a chat with friends," she told BBC Breakfast.

She also spoke of his humility and willingness to make time for those he came across.

"He was really good at being supportive of other people's careers... if he could give you a bit of a leg up he absolutely would."

Another long-term collaborator of Wright has added his own tribute.

Gavin McCoy met Wright in 1976, and was a fixture of his Radio 1 show in the 1980s performing characters such as Sid the Manager and Gervais the Hairdresser.

"We had so much in common that we became really good friends straight away," McCoy said.

The pair had made lunch plans for last Tuesday but McCoy said he received a message from Wright saying he was 'feeling a bit under the weather'.

McCoy said he "didn't think anything more about it" until he later heard from Wright's daughter, with the news that the star had died.

Of their time working together, which is fondly remembered by millions of listeners, he said: "His genius was to prepare everything in advance, the illusion was that he made it all look casual and spontaneous."