Presenter and comedian Frank Skinner has announced that he will be leaving Absolute Radio after 15 years at the station.

The broadcaster, 67, has been on Absolute Radio since 2009 and was inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame in December 2015.

He has hosted the Saturday breakfast slot The Frank Skinner Show, alongside co-hosts Emily Dean and Pierre Novellie, and also hosts Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast, which will continue for two more series.

Frank Skinner to leave Absolute Radio after 15 years 

In a pre-recorded show, he revealed he will be leaving in May and said: “My manager (called)… you know every year, about this time, we’ve just celebrated our 15th anniversary on the show, so obviously that means the new contract is coming, and every year I do self-deprecating jokes about the fact that we probably won’t get it renewed.

“Guess what?! Yeah, we didn’t! So, um, we’re not just going now, I’m not going to say bye and that’s the end we’ve got, like, several other, we’ve got some notice to serve, but um yeah, but no that was um… that’s it!'”

He added: “We had a good run but I realise that in recent times but I am ever more becoming Grandad from The Simpsons, but even so um, yes, I’m not going to pretend I took it… well I took it well in that we’ve had 15 years and Absolute have actually been very, very good to us in those 15 years but I didn’t take it well, I took it well in the way David Tennant took it well as the tenth Doctor when he started to regenerate and said: ‘I don’t want to go!'”

Skinner was made an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours list, where he was recognised for his services to entertainment.

He began his live stand-up career in 1987 when he tried his hand as a comic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He returned to the festival to scoop one of comedy’s most prestigious prizes, the Perrier Award, four years after his first performance.

Skinner, whose real name is Christopher Graham Collins, has been touring with his acclaimed show 30 Years of Dirt, heading to Milton Keynes, Brighton, Leeds and other venues in April, with more dates in May and June at other venues.

In August the show will return to the West End for a limited three-week run, it was recently announced.