This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

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In what might not be the best augur for someone about to start presenting Britain’s biggest breakfast radio show, Scott Mills is late. When he does appear for our interview, he’s a fizzing ball of energy. Unable to sit still, fidgeting in his chair, Mills is like a toddler on a sugar rush. Perhaps he’s nervous at the prospect of relieving Zoe Ball of her Radio 2 duties? “I’m not finding it daunting at all,” he says, blithely. “I’m ready for the challenge.”

Today’s tardiness notwithstanding, Mills certainly seems ready. “It’s a military operation – I’ve written up exactly what time I’ll be doing whatever each day, right down to putting outfits out for the morning.”

He runs me through his preparation. “You absolutely must be awake by this time. You absolutely must have left the house by this time. And you absolutely must prioritise sleep, otherwise you become a person that no one’s going to be around.”

Early mornings – he’ll be up by 4am every weekday – demand early nights. Is Mills worried about the toll this might take on his social life and relationship with his husband Sam Vaughan, with whom he won Celebrity Race across the World last year?

Scott and Sam, smiling with their hands in the air, wearing puffer jackets and red backpacks.
Scott Mills and husbands Sam. Studio Lambert

“I’m at the exact point in my life where I should be doing a breakfast show. It definitely wasn’t 15 years ago, because I really enjoyed going out and those two don’t necessarily go together. But I have a very lovely life now, I’m very settled. If I was in my 20s, I’d have mad FOMO – ‘Oh, my God, I’m missing out on the latest album launch’ – but I don’t feel that now.”

Mills’s mind may be on 15 years ago because there was a time when he looked like a shoo-in to take the reins of the Radio 1 breakfast show – only to be passed over for someone younger and, well, cooler. “After Chris Moyles and before Nick Grimshaw, they pretty much offered me the breakfast show,” he reveals. “And then they decided against it. They just decided, as they do, to go in a different direction.”

It sounds humiliating, a bit ‘always the bridesmaid’ for someone who, for a long time, was Mr Stand-In. But in retrospect, Mills considers himself lucky. “They would have probably put Nick Grimshaw on eventually anyway, so what would my tenure have been on the Radio 1 breakfast show? A year? Two years?” I get the sense that this wouldn’t have been enough to satisfy Mills’s ambition. “I’m glad that it’s taken until now because this is the big one.”

The Radio 2 revamp that Mills represents – including Trevor Nelson taking over early afternoons, DJ Spoony doing 10pm Monday to Thursday, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor getting a two-hour show on Friday nights – has not been without controversy, with no female presenters on air until 4pm on weekdays. Does Mills think the lack of female voices is an issue? He looks at me with what we’ll generously describe as disdain.

“We have two women on my breakfast show in the morning,” he says. “Tina Daheley, who will be doing the news, as she did on Zoe’s show, and Ellie Brennan, who is amazing and has done quite a lot on radio, too…

“And also, half of the breakfast show team – who sometimes you’ll hear on air and sometimes not – are also women. So no, I’m not worried about that in the slightest.”

What plans does Mills have for the 6.3m listeners to Radio 2’s flagship show – other than to stop them switching over to one of the 50-plus alternatives available on digital radio?

“I won’t be frantically worrying about the audience figures,” he says, firmly. “I will be applying the same formula that’s worked for me for the last quarter of a century on BBC Radio. It will be energetic, it will be fun, and it will be listener-inclusive. When you’re listening, I want you to feel that the listeners are running the conversation, and they’re kind of running the show. The music is key and it will be hand-picked for a morning mood. Breakfast radio is a mood, and if you get that mood right, and it’s quite a skill, then you’re going to do well.”

Will Mills do well at breakfast? He certainly loves radio and he’s a good broadcaster. “To me, it’s like breathing. I find it so easy.”

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