Chris McCausland is to host a new Sunday morning show on Absolute Radio, the station has announced.

Launching on July 5, the show will run from 8am to 11am, and also feature fellow stand-up Jon Long as his sidekick.

The news was announced on Dave Berry’s Absolute Radio breakfast show, where McCausland said: ‘I’m not on tour at the minute, so I’m just fancy-free and footloose and I’m an early riser anyway, the older I get, the earlier I wake up

‘So I’m looking forward to it, to be there as part of people’s Sunday morning, filling their ears with drivel while they’re driving round and trying to avoid doing anything productive. That’s a win for me.’

McCausland, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2024, said of Long, below: ‘Jon is a brilliant comedian, and he’s done my tour support for quite some time, so we’ve spent a lot of time together.

‘I’ve probably spent longer talking to Jon over a six-month block than I have my own wife. So we’re used to talking nonsense to each other for some long car journeys and in dressing rooms. And he’s used to putting up with me for long periods of time. I mean, it’s not like he can just leap out of a moving car, is it? So I’m hoping that in a stationary studio with a door, he doesn’t just walk out.’

Jason Manford stepped down from hosting the Sunday morning slot last year, following a decade in which he built the audience up to more than 800,000 weekly listeners. 

Jon Richardson hosts the same slot on Saturday mornings, having taken over in 2024 after Frank Skinner was dumped by the station after 15 years, against his wishes.

Paul Sylvester, content director at Absolute Radio, said McCausland was ‘a phenomenal talent – naturally funny, hugely relatable and completely original’.

He added: ‘His personality, humour and love of great music make him a perfect fit for Absolute Radio. We’re delighted to welcome him to the station and know our listeners are going to love spending Sunday mornings with him.’

McCausland already hosts the BBC Radio 4 panel show he devised, You Heard It Here First, which has run for three series while Long had a six-part eco-themed show on the same channel, called Carbon Lifeforms.

• Click here to make Chortle a 'preferred source' on Google, which means results from this site will appear higher in your search results.