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FOR eight years, Sara Cox was forever the bridesmaid, never the bride.

At long last, then, on a bright, sunny Monday morning in July, the broadcaster got her big day, becoming the long-overdue host of Radio 2’s Breakfast Show.

The first two tracks played?

Lizzo’s About Damn Time and CeCe Peniston’s Finally.

Which tells you all you need to know about this brilliantly witty DJ: She says it as she sees it, and has fun along the way.

“Was it deliberate?”, she says, smiling. “Of course — I was being cheeky.

“On the day itself though, I actually felt fine, not that nervous. It was a job I’ve wanted for so long that it just felt like . . . finally.

“And when I thought about About Damn Time, it did make me smile.

“I thought, ‘Start as you mean to go on’. I just wanted to be me, which essentially is a little bit cheeky.

“Luckily, the reaction’s been great. We have the best listeners in the world and I have the best job in the world. I’ve got an incredible team, a brilliant bunch of people like me who are massive radio geeks, and I love it.”

While some may have crumpled under the pressure of hosting the ­biggest gig on the airwaves, the unflappable former model has taken it all in her leggy stride.

An instant hit with listeners — she was also a long-time favourite with devotees of her former gig, the Drivetime show — Sara has introduced new games and inter­active formats to keep things fresh.

Lucky listeners can win a pair of branded “Sara Sox” socks (clean) should they triumph in games such as Let’s Hear It For The Noise, a fiendishly difficult memory challenge.

(Behind the scenes, she is incredibly hands-on, WhatsApping her team with ideas around the clock, I’m told.)

Having been relentlessly badgering Sara’s team for an interview, today, then, is my Big Day. Finally.

Invited to spend a morning in the life of the Bolton-born 51-year-old, things kick off, rather unpleasantly, with a 4.50am alarm call.

Entering the BBC’s flagship London building in the dark, I am tired and grumpy. Sara is not.

In the studio, she dances to tracks, chats to her listeners before and after they call (apparently, many DJs don’t bother with such niceties), and cheerfully munches on an avocado wrap she brought in from home.

The super-fit mum of three — who last year smashed a gruelling 135- mile run across five consecutive days, raising £11.7million for Children In Need — also stands up for the entirety of her three-hour show.

I am exhausted just watching her.

I used to sit down doing the radio but not any more,” she says.

“I like to move around. But it’s also for the leg region. the late (TV health expert) Michael Mosley did a podcast on inflammation — if you sit down for too long, your cells start making the inflammation. So, sadly, it’s not for a rock ’n’ roll reason.”

On the subject of rock ’n’ roll, to a legion of geriatric millennials like me, and Gen Xers, Sara came to the fore as a “ladette”.

Former Breakfast show host Zoe Ball, Sara — back then on Radio 1 — Denise van Outen, Meg Mathews, Sadie Frost, et al, were entrenched in pop culture of the Nineties.

With a motto of “work hard, play hard”, Sara and her pals were endlessly papped hanging out at celebrity hotspots such as London’s Met Bar.

Yet those days are long gone — so much so, the charismatic star is now teetotal. Plus, constant cameras — filmed clips of the show are put out on the station’s official Instagram page — mean it would be nigh-on impossible to hide a hangover.

She says with a laugh: “I mean, you saw the Radio 1 pap shots of me leaving the building — I literally look like I’d slept in a skip. It was great.

“But yeah, it’s all visualised now, and I get it, we are evolving. I can get away with putting my make-up on during a record. A bit of mazzie (mascara) and I’m good to go.

“Today, though, I don’t drink. I’ve not drank since February after my last pina colada in half-term.

“I do feel better for it. To be fair, I was drinking so little, maybe one unit a week, that when I did drink, it was making me feel dizzy and weird.

“Plus, my husband Ben hasn’t drunk for four or five years so that makes it easier/wears you down.

“I mean, you feel a complete lush having half a glass of malbec of an evening otherwise.”

She has been married to marketing executive Ben Cyzer, who she met at Glastonbury Festival, since 2013. They are blissfully happy. Presumably, though, Ben was less thrilled with his wife’s career reawakening and the unsociable hours?

Sharing her new routine, she says: “I am in bed by 9pm. When I started the job, I was setting my alarm at five, but then I was really rushing about and I thought, ‘No, Sara, make it a tiny bit earlier’. So, at 4.50am off goes the first one.

“Then Alexa is on stand-by at 4.55, and if things have gone really wrong, 5.05am and 5.06am are also set on my phone.

“And my husband, bless him, checks the doorbell sometimes to make sure I’ve actually gone.

“I am a light sleeper, so a lot of the time I take myself off to the spare room, because I’m getting up so early and need to sleep well.

“And also because he doesn’t want to go to bed at 9.15pm, because he’s an adult male. He’s a normal person.

“Then Friday and Saturday, it feels like quite a treat and it’s quite nice to be back together.”

After feeding the couple’s three cats, Watson, Peggy and Miso, she takes a home-made breakfast to eat in the studio and glugs a coffee in the car on the way in. (“I eat very quickly, like a seabird”).

Her first-day guest was Hollywood’s Tom Hanks — and on the day I visit, Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan joins her.

So who would her dream guests be? “Daniel Craig — we’ve just had M, Dame Judi Dench, so we should have Bond too. Tom Cruise would be wild — we’ve had The Hanks, and I’d love to work towards completing the Hollywood set.”

“Also on the list is Beyonce — “I interviewed her when I was pregnant with my son and he’s 18 now, so we’re well overdue a catch-up.” And Madonna — “I interviewed her at Radio 1 and offered her my spare room ’cos she was house-hunt­ing in the UK . . . The offer’s still on.”

Sara got the Breakfast Show gig at a challenging time for the BBC.

Previous host Scott Mills was fired over a historical allegation of a sexual offence.

It has since emerged the axed DJ has enlisted lawyers and is planning to sue the corporation.

Not surprisingly, questions about him are off the table. And 72 hours after my visit, a story comes out in the Press, with insiders claiming to have felt “uncomfortable” due to her habit of calling mistakes out on air.

Well, having chatted to four of her team, including her producer, and seen Sara mucking about with colleagues, I can testify it appears to be a very happy ship indeed.

A perfectionist she may be, but a tyrant she ain’t.

And listener figures for the show in the last few years have stayed solid at around 6.37million weekly.

Elsewhere, though, it is a challenging time generally for legacy media, as audiences consume their content largely online, on streaming services and platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

So does Sara, who has written four Sunday Times best- selling novels, think radio will still be around in a decade? Yes.

“I think it’ll always be there be­cause people will always want that connection and that friendship that they have with their DJ,” she says.

“There’s a lot of people who listen who won’t speak to anybody else for the rest of the day, so it’s important.

“But at the same time, we’ve just got to keep being innovative. And for younger audiences as well, we film everything. We’ve got a brilliant young socials team who are constantly coming up with great ideas for TikTok and Instagram.

“I really enjoy it, I love being silly and having fun. You can’t take yourself too seriously, can you?

“I do feel lucky. I really do have ‘pinch me’ moments in this job. I love it, and I really hope it shows.”

It does, Sara, it does.

Ski holidays have gathered a reputation for being some of the most expensive getaways, but how much will a weekend on the slopes really set you back? Oliver Radcliffe went to find out

Ski holidays have a reputation for being on the pricey side. The very pricey side. Holidays to the Alps are increasingly thought of as a reserve for only the richest, as the Mirror’s trip to Megeve last year highlighted. But it doesn’t have to be. A day on the slopes in Austria’s Gastein Valley might not be as expensive as those new to the mountainside life may think (although it’s certainly all relative).

Spread across the trio of resorts of Bad Gastein, Bad Hofgastein, and Dorfgastein, the valley forms part of the region of SalzburgerLand, one of the lesser-known alpine destinations. Yet compared with some of Europe’s biggest-name resorts, the cost of skiing here remains reasonable.

While a local dry slope can offer a cost-effective start for beginners, nothing beats real snow for the authentic experience. A trip to the Angertal ski school could be the perfect place to build your skills and get you able to take on the slopes.

One really handy feature of the region is its Guest Mobility Ticket, which provides free public transport throughout the entire region.

So what does a realistic day on the mountains actually cost?

Do you have a travel story to tell? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

The lift pass

The biggest hidden expense for any skier is the lift pass. This is your ticket to the mountain’s ski lifts and gondolas, which transport you to the top of the slopes so you can ski down. Without a valid pass, you won’t be able to ride the lifts. Passes can range from single-day tickets to multi-day, weekly, or even season-long access, with prices varying widely.

In the Gastein ski area, a one-day adult ticket costs €69.50 (~£59). A six-day pass costs €344.50 (~£293), which works out at around €57.40 (~£49) per day, so staying for a few days noticeably reduces the daily cost.

The pass gives access to the main Schlossalm–Stubnerkogel ski area linking Bad Gastein and Bad Hofgastein, as well as the higher-altitude Sportgastein sector.

Ski hire

If you’re not travelling with your own equipment, rental is the next major cost. At the Angertal Skizentrum in Bad Hofgastein, a day’s rental starts from around €26 (£22) for skis and poles and €14 (£12) for boots.

For weekly rentals, expect to spend around €129 (£110) for skis and €65 (£55) for boots. Snowboard rental is priced similarly.

Ski lessons

For beginners, learning can also be the most expensive part. A three-day beginner’s course can set you back around €294 (£250), including 12 hours of lessons with a dedicated instructor.

Lunch on the mountain

Food prices in the mountains are slightly higher than at your local spot, but Austrian mountain huts are usually gentler on the wallet than some French mega-resorts.

A typical slope-side lunch might include €10–€15 (£8.50–£13) for dishes such as goulash soup or Tiroler gröstl, another €6 (£5) for a drink or coffee, and another €7 (£6) for a slice of strudel. Kaiserschmarrn, the sweetened shredded pancake, costs a little more at around €15 (£13)but it will keep you full well into the evening.

Altogether, €15–€25 (£13–£21) is a realistic spend for lunch and an espresso on the mountain.

One recommendation after a day on the slopes of Bad Hofgastein is the brand new Hirsch und Maus, perched at the mountain peak. A traditional Wiener Schnitzel costs the equivalent of €21 (£18). For those fed up with beige carbs, a Caesar salad is around €19 (£16).

Après ski

Après ski is a key part of the skiing experience, but it can be expensive. After a day on the nursery slopes, a half litre of the local Salzburg brew, Stiegl, costs the equivalent of €6 (£5.30) at the trendy Angertal 1180.

That overall figure can drop if you book lift tickets early, bring your own gear, or choose shorter passes such as half-day tickets. Skiing will never be a budget activity, but not every resort caters only to those on six figures, where single-day lift passes often exceed €80–€90 (~£68–£77).

After the lifts close, many skiers swap their boots for bathrobes and head to the valley’s famous thermal spas, soaking tired legs in steaming mineral waters surrounded by snow.

Accommodation

A classic double room at Hotel Zum Stern costs €294 (~£250) per room per night. Shared between two people, that’s about €147 (~£125) each per night.

Five-day holiday estimate (per person)

Based on the assumption that you’d buy a lift pass for each of the five days of a five-day ski holiday, hire skis and boots for the week, and each day have a mountain lunch, a Schnitzel-style dinner, and one beer Apres ski, this is how much you could expect to spend.

• Lift pass, 5 days: €66–78.50 a day, €330–392 (£280–335) a week
• Ski and boot hire, weekly: €194 (£165)
• Lunch, 5 days: €15–25/day, €75–125 (£65–105) a week
• Dinner, 5 days: £16–18/day, €94–106 (£80–90) a week
• One beer a day, 5 days: €31 (£26.50)
• Accommodation, 5 nights: €1,470 per room, halved to €735 (£625)

Total (no lessons): €1,474–1,536 (£1,255–1,305)

• Optional 3-day beginners course: ~€294 (£250)

Total with lessons: €1,768–1,830 (£1,505–1,555)