Michael Buerk
Michael Buerk | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Duncan Buerk 18 February 1946 |
| Education | Secondary: Solihull School, University: University of Sussex and UWI Cardiff |
| Occupation(s) | TV presenter, newsreader and journalist |
| Agent(s) | Sue Ayton and Sue Knight of Knight Ayton Management[1] |
| Notable credit(s) | BBC News 999 Lifesavers Pineapple Dance Studios |
| Family | wife Christine & twin sons |
Michael Duncan Buerk (born 18 February 1946) is a BBC journalist and newsreader, most famous for his reporting of the Ethiopian famine on 23 October 1984, which inspired the Band Aid charity record.
Personal life
Buerk was born in Solihull,[2] and was educated at Solihull School, an Independent school in the West Midlands where he was a member of the Combined Cadet Force and represented the school on the sports field.
He currently lives in Guildford with his wife, with whom he has twin sons. One of his sons, Roland, who is also a BBC journalist, survived the South Asian tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004.[3] Earlier in 2004, he had published his autobiography called The Road Taken.
Career
Early career
His hopes of a career in the armed forces were dashed when he failed an eyesight test at the selection centre. After a brief spell as a hod carrier[4] he began his career in journalism with the Bromsgrove Messenger, South Wales Echo (where he shared a house with Sue Lawley in Cardiff), and the Daily Mail, he joined Radio Bristol in 1970 before becoming a reporter for BBC News in 1973.
Presenting work
- BBC Points West
- BBC Nine O'Clock News (1976 to 2000)
- (Industrial correspondent, 1976–77; Energy/Scotland correspondent 1977-81; Main presenter 1988-2000)
- BBC News at Ten (2000 to 2003)
- BBC News at One (1986 to 2003)
- Breakfast
- 999 Lifesavers
- The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 (since 1990)
- The Choice (since 1998)
- A Royal Wedding - HRH Prince Edward & Sophie Rhys-Jones (June 1999) - co-presenter with Sue Barker at Windsor.
- Total Eclipse (August 1999) - the main presenter on the historic solar Eclipse in Cornwall on BBC One.
Due to budgetary constraints, Buerk could often be seen acting in reconstructions of emergencies broadcast on his show 999 Lifesavers. During the 2001 Oscars, Buerk commented live on air that the BBC's arts correspondent Rosie Millard was wearing the 'best supporting dress'.[5]
Charity work
He was awarded the Golden Nymph award at the Monte Carlo festival for his reports on the famine from Korem in Ethiopia, first broadcast on 24 October 1984. He later said that the broadcast was one of "the most influential pieces of television ever broadcast [prompting] a surge of generosity across the world for Ethiopia [that raised] more than $130 million" [6]
On the BBC's Children in Need Buerk has performed several times along with an ensemble of BBC News presenters. In 2004 he dressed in leather to perform Duran Duran classics; in 2005 he sang the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody. He is sometimes imitated by Jon Culshaw on Dead Ringers.
Recent work
On 28 July 2007, Buerk appeared on a special celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Jennie Bond to raise money for NCH, the children's charity. With a combined effort, they raised £64,000. He is also a supporter of the British Red Cross[7] and in October 2008 came out in support of an Alternate Reality Game, Traces of Hope, which the charity developed.[8] In 2010 he narrated Sky1 reality show Pineapple Dance Studios.
Views
Buerk asserted in a Radio Times interview in August 2005 that the "shift in the balance of power between the sexes" has gone too far and that men are now little more than "sperm donors".[9] In particular, he objected to the many women now in senior positions within the BBC, echoing the outburst the previous year by sacked former Director General, Alasdair Milne. This was in anticipation of Buerk's 45-minute TV-essay, 'Michael Buerk on What Are Men For?" as part of Five's six-part "Don't Get Me Started!" series, broadcast on Tuesday 23 August 2005. The reaction to "What Are Men For?" was quite severe, criticising in particular Buerk's choices of sympathetic interview subjects, including "an odious chauvinistic farmer" and "a ridiculous Sloane" according to Guardian journalist Sam Wollaston .[10]
Buerk has also criticised some of his colleagues for being overpaid "lame brains".[11]
References
- ^ Call my agent
- ^ Author Spotlight
- ^ BBC journalist marries the girlfriend who saved him from tsunami
- ^ Michael Buerk (2005). The Road Taken. Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0099461371.
- ^ Terri Judd, As Buerk signs off, who will take BBC news hot seat?, The Independent, 8 June 2002
- ^ "The Road Taken, An Autobiography", Michael Buerk, Hutchinson, 2004
- ^ Celebrity update 2006
- ^ Michael Buerk - British Red Cross
- ^ Buerk attacks women broadcasters
- ^ Murder he wrote
- ^ News veterans weigh in over 'dumbo' presenters