Never let it be said that Michael Buerk’s time on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! was wasted. The former BBC News man will use his experience to contribute to a debate about reality TV on his Radio 4 show The Moral Maze, appearing as both presenter and witness.
Previewing the show on the Today programme on Wednesday, Buerk was asked for his initial thoughts on celebrity reality TV. “Oh, I think it’s hateful – no, not hateful, but questionable,” he said. Asked whether he had any regrets about taking part, he said: “Regret is too simple a word really. I’m waiting until the dust settles.”
He said the programme would ask: “Is this cultural corrosion a load of attention-seeking non-entities being humiliated for the amusement of the vacuous, or 21st century morality plays that stress-test the people and preconceptions the modern world holds dear? What’s celebrated about celebrity, which for the first time in human history, perhaps, appears to be divorced from achievements or virtue?” Just the sort of thing you hear them talking about in the jungle, in fact.
