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BBC man's jibes miss joke

23/ 8/2003

TV NEWSMAN Michael Buerk told millions of viewers that he "hates" Manchester.

He made the outspoken remarks live on BBC Breakfast News during a report supposed to promote the city.

He joked it always rains in Manchester and arriving from Birmingham was "like going from the sublime to the ridiculous."

The comments came as the morning news show broadcast live from Cathedral Gardens in the city centre. Business reporter Declan Curry was in Manchester to report on the regeneration that has taken place since the IRA bomb, with imaginative projects like the Urbis musuem. But Buerk used the opportunity to joke at the city's expense.

The news presenter made a series of negative comments and jibes about Manchester as he talked to Curry from the programme's London studio.

He made fun of the city's weather and told viewers he hates Manchester. His shocked co-presenter Jules Botfield warned he would encourage angry e-mails from Mancunians, but he continued the outburst.

Dismissed

Now Peter Tavernor, principal at MANCAT - Manchester College of Art and Technology - is calling on Buerk to apologise to the people of Manchester.

Mr Tavernor was interviewed live on the programme as part of the report. He was shocked to hear Buerk's comments.

He said: "It is disappointing for the city to be dismissed by what is clearly an ill-informed and ill-considered statement, after such a positive feature showcasing Manchester as a world-class city where education training, economic development, and social development go hand in hand.

"Michael Buerk should be ashamed of using the platform the BBC provides him with in such a way and he owes the people of Manchester an apology."

But when the M.E.N. approached Michael Buerk he refused to be interviewed.

A BBC spokesman said: "It was a light-hearted exchange. Michael knows people in Manchester can take a joke and he certainly did not mean to cause any offence."

Mike Todd, the head of communications at Marketing Manchester, said: "Anyone who has been to Manchester in the last few years will have seen the remarkable transformation the city has gone through. It is now one of Europe's best cities. We don't take seriously this kind of uninformed criticism."

Buerk, 57, is one of the most respected presenters at the BBC. In 1984 his reports on the famine in Ethiopia inspired Bob Geldof to set-up the Live Aid appeal. Earlier this year he retired from his regular job fronting the Ten O'clock News and since then has worked as a stand-in on programmes. Originally from Solihull, near Birmingham, he lives in Surrey.