Bacon off work for throat op

Richard Bacon is to take a month off from BBC Radio 5 Live when he has an operation on a growth on his vocal cords.

The presenter told listeners to his 10pm-1am weekday show how specialists discovered the polyp by putting a small camera down his throat.

He has put a photo of the growth on the 5 Live website and is now waiting for an operation.

"I'll be off work for four weeks and for the first two weeks I won't be able to speak - not a word," explained the 33-year-old. "It couldn't sound more deathly boring.

"I went to the ENT [ear, nose and throat] guy and he shoved a camera down my throat. I expected it to be the size of a pencil or something, actually it wasn't. It was about an inch wide.

"He dropped it down and I rejected it a few times in the way that you do when you put your fingers at the back of your throat. It really was quite an unpleasant process."

Bacon's voice already sounds audibly weaker because of the problem.