From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Buerk was born in Solihull, and was educated at Solihull School, an Independent school in the West Midlands. In later life he attended the University of Sussex.

After working for the South Wales Echo and the Daily Mail, he joined Radio Bristol in 1970 before becoming a reporter for BBC News in 1973. He later presented many news programmes including:

• The BBC Nine O'Clock News (1987-2003)
• The BBC Ten O'Clock News (2000 to 2003)
• Breakfast
• 999 Lifesavers
• The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 (since 1990)
• The Choice (since 1998)

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 sung the Bohemian Rhapsody. He is sometimes imitated by Jon Culshaw on Dead Ringers.

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". 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" (Sam Wollaston in the Guardian's G2 supplement on 24 August 2005). Buerk has also criticised some of his colleagues for being overpaid "lame brains".

During the 2001 Oscars Buerk commented live on air that the BBC's Arts Correspondent Rosie Millard was wearing the 'best supporting dress'.

He currently lives in Guildford with his wife, with whom he has twin sons. One of his sons, Roland Buerk, survived the South Asian tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. Earlier in 2004, he had published his autobiography called The Road Taken.

On July 28, 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.

• Michael Buerk at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Buerk through the years.
• Leaving the Ten O'Clock News
• Michael upsets Manchester.
• His autobiography.
• The Choice
• The Moral Maze
• Jon Culshaw as Michael Buerk on the BBC's Dead Ringers