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BBC Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay has been forced to pull out of his regular hosting duties on orders from his doctor.

The 50-year-old presenter sounded hoarse as he shared an update on Instagram on Tuesday morning, telling his followers he had a sore throat and had been advised to go on vocal rest.

He said: “Morning everyone. Under doctor’s orders, I’m resting my voice.

“It should be alright tomorrow but I’m going to slide away from the microphone this morning and just rest the vocal chords.”

“They’re a bit strained, allegedly. Very hoarse. But I’ll be back tomorrow,” he explained.

During Kay’s show on Monday, listeners remarked that the host sounded “awful” and shouldn’t be presenting.

One listener wrote: “It’s actually a bit unprofessional in my opinion. I don’t know what @BBCRadio2 are thinking of. It’s 1 thing him going in, but Vernon wasn’t sent home sounding like that when he’s on for 2.5 hours?”

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One fan added: “WOW! Vernon Kay sounds awful this morning. His voice is almost gone. Get better soon Vern,” as another remarked Kay sounded “awful”.

Presenter Gaby Roslin, who recently covered for Zoe Ball during her extended leave of absence, is sitting in for Kay today on his mid-morning show.

Opening the show today, Roslin began: “Morning everyone, Vern usually says what the weather’s like, I can tell you, it’s raining, take your umbrella.”

She later sent her well-wishes to the All Star Family Fortunes host, saying: “Gaby in for Vernon Kay, it’s a joy to be here.”

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“Vernon, I hope your throat is feeling better. I was listening yesterday, loved the show but did worry about your throat,” she said. “So just take it easy, no talking today.”

Kay’s absence comes as Zoe Ball returned to the radio station on Monday (23 September) following a six-week-long absence.

Ball welcomed back listeners on Monday (23 September) with her lively introduction, telling them, “It’s me Zoe, the happy wanderer, I’ve wandered back” before asking if they enjoyed their “Brat summer”.

Thanking her colleague and radio presenter, Scott Mills, for filling in for her, she said: “Thank you Scott Mills for looking after the show for the week – more on that later. What have I missed? Text me! Missed ya!”

In March, Ball revealed she would be taking time off from her breakfast show to care for her mother, Julie Peckham, who was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer earlier this year. In April, Peckham died aged 74, with Roslin and Mills stepping in to cover Ball’s morning slot.

After playing her first track, Ball joked that she hadn’t been to Turkey for a “new face and teeth” during her time off, but newsreader Tina Daheley told her “you do look great though”.

Ball joked that she had “so much gossip” to catch up on with her fellow presenters before reading out messages from listeners – with many of them telling her they had missed her during her leave.

As one listener phoned in to request a song, they welcomed Zoe back, to which she replied: “Ah thank you it is lovely to be back.”

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Melrose Place star Courtney Thorne-Smith has claimed she was asked to wear a “really sexy negligee” as an underage actor in one of her early movies.

The 56-year-old is best known for her roles as Alison Parker in the American soap opera, as well as playing Georgia Thomas on legal comedy Ally McBeal. However, despite being known for her light-hearted roles onscreen, her career started out on a slightly darker note.

“One of my first movies, I was 17 years old, and I was in Tahoe. And the storyline was, I was 17, and I was playing against this guy who was in his late thirties,” the star explained on the latest episode of her podcast Still the Place.

Thorne-Smith presents the show with her Melrose Place co-stars Daphne Zuniga who plays Jo Reynolds and Laura Leighton who plays Sydney Andrews.

“We did sleep together in the script, and I wore one of his button-down shirts afterwards,” she continued.

However, when Thorne-Smith got to the set, she found “a really sexy negligee” in her room. She raised the issue with her director, reminding him that she had a no-nudity clause in her contract and that the lingerie had not been included in the script.

“They just trapped me,” she continued. A producer then told the actor that the film’s crew were talking about her “being a baby”.

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Thorne-Smith contacted her agent who appeared on the set of the production to support her. The actor appreciated the gesture and reflected on it years afterwards, when she heard accounts of women being set up by their agents in hotel rooms.

“I also had this mindset of, I’m 17 with an [older] man,” she said. “Like, I knew it was kind of off, but the shirt made it feel alright.”

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Although she said production was left “furious”, Thorne-Smith said that members of the crew congratulated her afterwards.

“I’m so grateful I had that ability to stand up for myself at that age,” she said. “I’m amazed, actually. I had that ability at that age.”

Thorne-Smith made her debut film appearance alongside Winona Ryder and Charlie Sheen in 1986 movie, Lucas. She went on to star in a number of TV shows and movies in the 1980s. Her breakthrough role came in 1992 when she first starred on Melrose Place, continuing on the show until 1997.

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Monty Python star Sir Michael Palin has opened up about the real issues that led him to quit his long stint at the BBC.

The 81-year-old comedian and presenter also hosted a series of travel documentaries from 1989 to 2012, before quitting work with the broadcaster.

Since then he’s preferred to work with Channel 5, covering travel from Iraq to North Korea. His most recent work includes a three-part series where he travels through Nigeria.

Palin cited over-interference from the BBC as the reason he eventually left the corporation.

“There was the feeling that the BBC wanted to interfere a little more. They wanted to control it a little more,” he told Radio Times.

“They had this new way of presenting shows — which I would get absolutely, desperately frustrated with — where they would show, in the first five minutes, all the great moments of what was to come because this captured viewers.

“Otherwise, as soon as they see Michael Palin, they’ll switch off. The BBC were going in a different direction and presentation was going in a different direction.”

After Palin left the BBC in 2012, he said he “felt very let down” when the network’s editorial standards team upheld a viewer complaint that accused his New Europe series of oversimplifying the Balkan war.

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Last year, the actor and writer shared the news that his wife of 57 years, Helen Gibbins, had died of kidney failure. However, he said he had “no great worries” about death, although he admitted he felt some guilt about travelling when she was ill.

The couple had met on a beach in Suffolk when they were teenagers, and Gibbins variously worked as a teacher, a therapist and a bereavement counsellor throughout her life.

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Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in June, Palin said: “It’s like you’re a unit, and suddenly you are not a unit any longer, and it’s a bit like losing a bit of a limb, you’re not quite sure where you are.”

He added: “I do hear her and she had a great sense of humour. Sometimes I will have done something and I’ll get back and tell her about it. Although she’s not there, I know her reply and it makes me smile.

The couple had three children and four grandchildren, and celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary just two-and-a-half weeks before her death.