Ken Bruce opens up about life after Radio 2 and making his TV debut with PopMaster

Ken Bruce has opened up on life after leaving his job at BBC Radio 2 after two decades and admitted he’s feeling nervous ahead of his TV debut later this month.

The veteran radio star, 72, swapped the BBC for Greatest Hits Radio earlier this year after 31 years of presenting his 9:30am-midday weekday show when the broadcaster decided to have a shakeup.

His last show for the BBC went out on March 3 and since then he hasn’t looked back.

In addition to taking many of his loyal listeners with him, Glasgow-born Bruce also walked away with his popular PopMaster quiz after the BBC opted not to trademark it.

The segment was a regular part of his shows since the late 1990s and sees two callers go up against each other to test their knowledge of pop music.

Bruce felt that it could translate well to television and copyrighted it himself. It proved a savvy decision with a six-part series of PopMaster arriving on More4 next week

Speaking about his change of career direction to new magazine, he said: “It feels right and I’m really enjoying it. I recommend that if anybody has the opportunity when they get to a certain age to just take a slight different direction in life then do it. Why not?”

Although his voice is well-known, his face isn’t as much and he feels a bit apprehensive about that changing.

“I probably shouldn’t be on that level where I am in people’s faces all the time,” he told the publication.

“Being on television a lot does make people start to turn against you a little bit,” he continued.

He then went on to recall how Sir Terry Wogan was “the most popular man in the country” before appearing “on television two or three days a week” caused some viewers to moan the late star was “never off the b***** telly”.

Adding: “People are always nice at the moment and I hope that continues.”