Sue Lawley is stepping down as the host of seminal BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs after 18 years, which presents a delicate conundrum for Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer.
Lawley took over from Michael Parkinson on the show in 1987 and Parky took over from Desert Island Discs creator Roy Plomley who presented the show from its inception in 1942 until his death in 1985.
But the appointment of Lawley did not go down well in some quarters, famously upsetting Plomley's widow Diana, who less than amused about Lawley's habit of quizzing castaways about their sex lives.
And Mrs Plomley was not the only DID devotee to have their noses put out of joint during Lawley's tenure. Labour's former deputy leader, Roy Hattersley (himself once marooned), was under the impression that Lawley had lowered the tone:
"There was a time when the world's great stars were pleased to take part," he wrote in the Daily Mail. "Orson Welles flew the Atlantic to choose eight records, Marlene Dietrich discussed how she would adjust to life under the coconut palms, and James Stewart loped in to the studio and drawled his musical preferences.
"In Roy Plomley's time, one-film wonders like Hugh Grant and second-division dress designers would have been wrecked on the sandy shore of a BBC studio. Only last week one such couturier - Jasper Conran - was enlightening us all with an array of jejune views about life, sexuality and the importance of Jasper Conran," sniffed Hattersley.
However, despite the early nay-saying, Lawley has recently seen her DID ratings hit a six-year high, with 1.78million a week tuning in the last quarter of 2005
But Lawley's decision to quit leaves Mr Damazer with a choice dilemma: who should replace her? Given Radio 4 die-hard fans' vociferous opposition to his axing of the UK Theme, if he gets this wrong, the controller could have a mutiny on his hands.
