Jenni Murray receives chocolate cake from Mary Berry to mark her final episode of Woman’s Hour

Dame Jenni Murray received a sweet treat to mark her final episode of Woman’s Hour - a chocolate cake from Mary Berry.

Murray, 70, said goodbye to the flagship Radio 4 show on Thursday morning after 33 years and told listeners that she had been “cheered” by the special gift from the baking legend.

Opening her final programme, she said: “Good morning and welcome to Woman’s Hour and, yes, it does feel very strange to be saying that for the last time after 33 years.

“Although I am much cheered by a gift from Mary Berry, a chocolate cake sitting in front of me, waiting to be shared with the team and we will wait till the end of the programme, I promise you.”

She is the longest-serving host in the BBC Radio 4 programme’s history and first appeared on the programme in 1987.

Later on in Thursday’s show, which saw Murray look back at more than three decades of interviews, the presenter recalled how Berry had often brought cake to share with staff at the Radio 4 studios when she appeared on Woman’s Hour.

Murray also admitted that her favourite interview subject was the singer Joan Baez, as she had been “her greatest fan” as a teenager.

“She was charming, she was funny,” Murray recalled, adding that the star had also sung her “absolute favourite song” Diamonds In Rust for her.

“She sat here in this studio with her guitar and for my benefit she actually sang Diamonds In Rust and I cried,” she revealed.

“No one would have known because I was sobbing inside, she was wonderful.”

Presenter Jane Garvey is also set to leave Woman’s Hour at the end of the year, with Emma Barnett announced as a replacement.

With reporting by Press Association

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