Chris Evans: Radio 2 host's tearful goodbye speech in full

Chris Evans became emotional as he said goodbye for the last time to listeners and colleagues from his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show.

Here is his speech in full:

"Thank you for everything, thank you to the BBC for supporting me and entrusting me with one of their precious microphones for the last 13 years, for allowing me to grow for every minute of every day I've been on the air; whether it's live from Glastonbury or from the beaches of northern France for the commemorations of the Normandy landings or having a blast in the middle of one of our Friday shows.

"For the magnificent guests, all that amazing music, right here in Sir Terry's old studio, studio 6C of Wogan House in London.

"Thank you to everyone who's ever produced or assisted the production of the show, and anything at all to do with the stellar content that I have been gifted over the last eight years.

"Thank you to Children in Need, for giving me the biggest 'why' of my life, to come up with as many 'hows' as I possibly could to give people a right laugh, under the pretence of raising pots of cash for Pudsey's piggy bank.

Evans and Fearne Cotton worked together on Children in Need

"It's the most selfish thing I've ever done, one of which was coming up with a festival for 40 days and 40 nights to keep my mind off eating bread, which is how CarFest came about.

"Thank you to my superb agent Michael. We've been together for longer than any of our marriages, and there's been five. Without Michael's love, loyalty and support, not only would I have done most of my things I've been lucky enough to achieve, I wouldn't actually be here now without Michael.

"Thanks to Lesley [Douglas], my original boss at Radio 2, for believing in me back in 2005 and giving me a second chance to not mess things up this time around.

"Thank you to Helen for being my first producer, that led to us somehow being given this show.

'Certainty and security'

"Thank you to Bob [Shennan] and Lewis [Carnie] for all the support during my stewardship of this show, thank you to my assistant, the frothy coffee man for being my by side for well over a decade now, especially for his tireless efforts concerning Children in Need. He's the real hero of all that.

"Thank you to all my friends and family for putting up with me and the occasional nonsense that comes with having someone in your personal orbit that does a job like this, particularly my daughter Jade and her fantastic mum Alison.

"Thank you of course to you all for listening, but most of all I'd like to thank my wife Natasha, my gravity, my compass, my guidance, my guiding light, for giving me enough certainty and security to feel confident enough to embark upon a bit of uncertainty once again, which is what I like.

Evans and his wife Natasha Shishmanian left the BBC with some of their children

"I crave the uncertainty but you can only do that against a backdrop of certainty and security.

"Uncertainty is where creativity lives, comfort and creativity are not the greatest of bedfellows let me tell you.

"To read a book you have to keep turning the pages, but to write a book in the first place you have to do exactly the same. The sight of a blank page strikes the fear of God into some, but for others there's nothing more exciting.

"So with your blessing, that's precisely what I'm going to do.

"None of look forward to saying goodbye to the things and people we love, but that's simply because we love them so much, in the first place, which is precisely as it should be. Why would we want it any other way?"