'It's good to have a debate' says host of Moral Maze
ENCOURAGING debate was one of the reasons former BBC journalist and newsreader Michael Buerk took up an invitation to come to Guernsey yesterday.
Mr Buerk was in the island to chair a debate at The Ladies’ College, having been invited by its principal Daniele Harford-Fox.
Ms Harford-Fox was director of studies and deputy head of the school that Mr Buerk used to go to in the Midlands.
‘I went back there for something or other, and of course once you come within Daniele’s orbit there is no escape,’ he smiled.
Last night’s debate was on the topic of sexism and whether it was worse now than 30 years’ ago.
Mr Buerk said that when he joined the BBC more than 50 years ago, women were not seen as being suitable for certain jobs.
‘Even though it was a liberal organisation and there were women near the very top of it, there were expectations about what the “proper” role of women should be.’
After a period as a journalist in the field, he joined the newsreader team which at that time included Angela Rippon.
‘She was effectively the first mainline [female] newscaster.
‘She’s a good friend so I don’t want to be rude, but she had a certain iciness in her broadcast demeanour.’
Things had changed since then, and on a recent visit to Broadcasting House he realised that the majority of people there were women and they were working in the corporation at every level.
Mr Buerk’s own role as a broadcaster has continued with a series of TV programmes for the BBC, including Royal Recipes and the Heir Hunters, and he said he is currently working on new documentaries for Channel 5.
He has also appeared as himself in the Netflix drama The Crown and he is still fronting the weekly Radio 4 live discussion programme The Moral Maze.
‘The BBC has been very good about The Moral Maze. It’s been going for 33 years now and it’s always been kind of no-holds-barred intellectually, as well as in the strength of the arguments.
‘But the appetite for debate in society as a whole, and I think perhaps elsewhere in the BBC, is perhaps not what it was.
‘And that’s one of the reasons why I’m particularly keen on things like this, encouraging debate in schools.’
