McMillan hosts the weekly show "The Verb "and Proms variation "Adverb" on BBC Radio 3, "dedicated to investigating spoken words around the globe". He has been described in the BBC's publication "Radio Times" as the "22nd Most Powerful Person in Radio". He is also a regular roving contributor to Radio 4's "Today" Programme where he was at one stage dubbed as the programme's "Election Laureate". He co-wrote the Radio 4 comedy series "Street and Lane" with Dave Sheasby which first aired 2005–2007 and has since been repeated. During January 2007, he presented a BBC Radio 3 series on writing, "Ian McMillan's Writing Lab", in which he talked to a range of authors which included Julian Barnes, Mark Ravenhill, Howard Jacobson and Michael Rosen. He has also been a panellist on BBC Radio 4's long-running game show "Just A Minute".