Michael Buerk facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Buerk
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Buerk in 2012
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| Born |
Michael Duncan Buerk
18 February 1946 Solihull, Warwickshire, England
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| Education | UWI Cardiff |
| Occupation | TV presenter, newsreader, journalist |
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Notable credit(s)
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BBC News Britain's Secret Treasures 999 Heir Hunters |
| Spouse(s) |
Christine Lilley
(m. 1970) |
| Children | 2, including Roland |
Michael Duncan Buerk ( born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama 999 from 1992 to 2003. From 2017, Buerk also presented the TV programme Royal Recipes which ran for two series.
Contents
Early life
Buerk was born on 18 February 1946 in Solihull, Warwickshire, and attended 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.
Buerk's hopes of a career in the Royal Air Force were dashed when he failed an eyesight test at the selection centre. He briefly worked as a hod carrier.
Reporter and newsreader
Buerk began his career in journalism with the Bromsgrove Messenger, South Wales Echo (he shared a house with Sue Lawley in Cardiff), and the Daily Mail. In 1970, he joined BBC Radio Bristol, where he was the first voice heard on air, before becoming a network reporter for BBC News in 1973.
From 1983 to 1987, Buerk was the BBC's South Africa correspondent during the dying years of apartheid in South Africa. Buerk's uncompromising reports on the brutalities of the regime resulted in the South African government expelling him from the country after four years in the post.
Buerk's reporting of the Ethiopian famine in October 1984 inspired the Band Aid charity record and, subsequently, the Live Aid concerts. His report is regarded as a watershed moment in crisis reporting that influenced modern coverage.
He later anchored the BBC Nine O'Clock News and BBC News at Ten. He read the bulletin at 0100 GMT on 1 January 2000, the first BBC News bulletin of the 2000s.
Buerk announced his retirement from BBC News in 2002, though he said he would continue to host other programmes. Despite his retirement, he occasionally appeared on BBC News as an occasional relief presenter until 2004.
Other work
In 2010, Buerk narrated Sky1 reality show Pineapple Dance Studios. Buerk has also made five guest appearances on the BBC's The One Show in April and September 2010. He has also appeared as a fill-in presenter for Jason Manford on six occasions.
Since July 2012, Buerk has co-presented ITV's Britain's Secret Treasures with Bettany Hughes, looking at fifty of the most remarkable archaeological finds made by the British public. On 6 October 2013, he began hosting Inside the National Trust, a new documentary series.
Buerk has hosted BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze since 1990 and The Choice since 1998.
In 2013, Buerk voiced a Marmite advert in which spoof rescue teams rescue lost forgotten jars at the back of cupboards and fridges and despite receiving a number of complaints the advert still continues.
Beginning on 16 November 2014, Buerk took part in the fourteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! On 3 December 2014, he was the third celebrity to be eliminated in the public vote.
Charity work
On 28 July 2007, Buerk appeared on a celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Jennie Bond to raise money for NCH, the children's charity. Between them they won £64,000. He is a supporter of the British Red Cross and in October 2008 came out in support of an alternative reality game, Traces of Hope, which the charity developed.
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 and in 2005, he sang Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Depictions
Buerk was imitated by Jon Culshaw on Dead Ringers.
Buerk's life and career has been the subject of a comedy musical, Buerk! The Newsical, which debuted in London at the Network Theatre in May 2013.
Personal life
Buerk lives in Guildford, Surrey, with his wife Christine, with whom he has twin sons.
Buerk was awarded the Golden Nymph award at the Monte Carlo festival for his reports on the famine from Korem in Ethiopia, first broadcast on 23 October 1984. The footage of the famine was shot by Mohamed Amin. 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".
In 1991, Buerk was awarded an Honorary Degree (MA) by the University of Bath.
On 18 July 2013, Buerk was awarded an honorary "Doctor of the University" degree at Surrey University's awards ceremony in Guildford Cathedral.
Filmography
- Television
- BBC Points West – Reporter/Presenter
- BBC Midlands Today (executive producer)
- BBC South Today – Reporter
- BBC Nine O'Clock News (1976–2000)
- (Industrial correspondent, 1976–77; Energy/Scotland correspondent 1977–81; South Africa correspondent 1983–87; Main presenter 1988–2000)
- BBC Ten O'Clock News (2000–2003)
- BBC One O'Clock News (1986–2003)
- BBC Breakfast
- 999 (1992–2003)
- A Royal Wedding – HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex & 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.
- 2000 Today – Co-presenter
- The One Show (September 2010) – Stand-in presenter
- Pineapple Dance Studios (2010) – Narrator
- Britain's Secret Treasures (2012–13) – Co-presenter
- Inside the National Trust (2013) – Presenter
- Britain's Secret Homes (2013) – Co-presenter
- I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2014) – Contestant
- Pompeii with Michael Buerk (2016) – Presenter
- Royal Recipes (2017–present) – Presenter
- Heir Hunters (2017–present) - Presenter
- Britain by Boat (2018) - Co-presenter
- Celebrity 5 go Barging (2019) - Co-presenter
- Radio
- The Moral Maze (since 1990)
- The Choice (since 1998)
