DANNY Baker chuckles after being voted 15th in a poll of Britain’s greatest radio hosts - ahead of Chris Evans, Tony Blackburn and Paul Gambaccini.

These days he only does a two-hour Saturday show on BBC Radio 5 live, and says he’s as happy sorting out his 12,000-strong album collection as he is being on air.

It’s a far cry from 2012, when his BBC Radio London show was axed and he had a prolonged on air rant about it, describing his superiors as ‘pinhead weasels’.

The whole debacle is featured in his newly released third autobiography, Going On The Turn.

“The same week I was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, I was let go by local radio,” he recalls. “But the people who run all the media in this country want to have issues to talk about. They don’t put any weight by entertainment. My radio show was nothing but absolute froth, brilliantly delivered, but they didn’t understand it.

“All they want is something they can control and say, ‘Shouldn’t we go out there and talk about gangs and drugs and Brexit?’ It’s like John Peel. They shunted him off into the middle of the night, he dies, and they name a building after him. It’s absolutely absurd.

Still, Baker, 60, can be his own boss on his 50 date 2018 UK tour, which stops at Southampton’s 02 Guildhall on June 2.

Tickets are on sale now from 023 8063 2601 or academymusicgroup.com