BOLTON babe Sara Cox shocked the nation and her BBC bosses by taking up her post as Radio One's headgirl three days before schedule.

She was due to start her much hyped post on Monday, but Sara barged into broadcasting house yesterday morning and demanded to go on air.

She's jumped into the hot seat vacated by her best mate Zoe Ball, and millions will be tuning in on Monday to see how the former Masefield County Primary School pupil fares in one of the most high profile presenting jobs in the UK.

And she's got some stiff competition, going head-to-head with Virgin breakfast show host Chris Evans.

BBC bosses will be closely monitoring the listening figures, with fingers crossed that she won't lose them the millions of extra listeners that popular Zoe Ball tempted to tune in.

Born and bred in Little Lever, Sara first hit our screens three years ago as one of the presenters on Channel 4's controversial Girlie Show.

And since then her rise to fame has been meteoric.

She's fronted a series of shows including The Big Breakfast and Exclusive. More recently she was seen presenting an award at the Brit Awards with Zoe Ball.

On top of landing the lucrative Radio One job, she's also due to marry her boyfriend, Prodigy star Leeroy.

Sara's appointment as the breakfast show DJ has made it an amazing double - Zoe's dad Johnny Ball is from Bolton.

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