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Newsman Michael Buerk PAGE 86 C M Y K DAILY MAIL WeeKEND ‘Because I was a newsreader people think I’m a self-important authority figure and a bit of a snob. I’m not entirely convinced they’re wrong’ Hotel in Cape Town. Dinner would be DEFINITE in London at the Garrick Club. I’d have the set menu with club claret. The happiest moment you will cherish forever... Professionally, discovering my report about the famine in Ethiopia in October 1984 was having an impact. ARTICLE We ask a celebrity a set of devilishly The saddest time that shook your world… My mother’s death. My grand- probing questions – and only accept parents didn’t allow me to go to the funeral, which is a continuing regret. THE definitive answer. This week The unfulfilled ambition that contin- ues to haunt you… To be made a mem- it’s broadcaster Michael Buerk ber of the House of Lords, but I’d be completely unqualified. The prized possession you value above The book that holds an all others… My Spitting Image puppet, everlasting resonance… The philosophy that underpins your which I bought at auction about ten years Passage To Juneau: A Sea life… Churchill again: ‘Keep ago for £180. It makes me smile. And Its Meanings by Jon- b*******g on!’ athan Raban. It’s a wonderful The biggest regret you wish you could The unlikely inter- The misapprehension about yourself The order of service at your funeral… sailing adventure, but also an amend… Not asking my mother Betty est that engages you wish you could erase… That because I’d have an Anglican service with an historical analysis of the Brit- about my childhood before she died of a your curiosity… But- I was a newsreader I’m a self-important African choir singing Nkosi Sikelel’ ish naval officer Captain heart condition when I was 16. I wanted to terflies. I was a keen authority figure and a bit of a snob. I’m iAfrika (God Bless Africa). I’d be taken George Vancouver. know about my father and how their rela- collector as a child, not entirely convinced it’s wrong! out to Show Me The Way To Go Home. tionship ended [Michael’s parents sepa- The priority activity if you and now I spot them The song that means most to you… The way you want to be remembered... rated when he was three after his father, were the Invisible Man for a with my grandchildren. Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits. It He tried to be a good son, husband, Gordon, was revealed to be a bigamist]. day… I’d sit in a meeting of The piece of wisdom you would pass was the favourite song of cameraman father and reporter. TV executives as they pick ‘celebs’ for The temptation you wish you could on to a child… Churchill’s dictum, ‘The Mohamed Amin, who filmed with me a reality show. I’ve yet to find out why The Plug… Michael Buerk presents resist… Sudoku puzzles. I do one every secret of success is to go from one failure during the Ethiopia famine. That song I was chosen for I’m A Celebrity. The Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 on day and they make me believe that I’m to another with no loss of enthusiasm.’ reflects our camaraderie. He died in a Wednesday. Visit bbc.co.uk. n clever, but they’re just a waste of time. The person who has influenced you hijacking in Africa in 1996. The unending quest that drives you As told to Rob McGibbon most… My wife Christine. We’ve been The pet hate that makes your hackles on… To avoid being found out! Journal- The way you would spend your fantasy married for 46 years and she never fails rise... The mangling of the English lan- ism is bluff; I hope to stay a step ahead. 24 hours, with no travel restrictions... to tell me when I’m being an idiot. guage. Top of my list is using ‘decimate’ I’d start with a canoe ride down the The poem that touches your soul… to mean completely destroy something. It The treasured item you lost and wish Zambezi with Christine and our twin Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum means to reduce by one tenth. you could have again… My eyesight. I sons Roland and Simon, who are 41 Est. It distils the tragic gap between wore bottle-bottom glasses as a teen- now. Breakfast would be a full English the leaders in a war and the soldiers. ager which I blame – wrongly – for my with HP Sauce at Il Blandford’s cafe in lack of romantic success. I also failed The event that altered the course of London. After that we’d check into the my medical for the RAF because of it. My mother’s Singita Pamushana Lodge in Zimbabwe your life and character… and go on a game drive. Lunch would The figure from history for whom death. It made me wayward at school and left an enormous hole in my life. be at L’Hirondelle restaurant in Monte you’d most like to buy a pie and a Carlo, where I’d have lobster salad and pint… Samuel Pepys. He was an The crime you would commit knowing P Provençal rosé wine. In the afternoon, HOTO incredible gossip who would be you could get away with it… I wish I’d my four grandchildren, aged five to wickedly fun company. tipped Jimmy Savile over the side G eight, would join us in Turkey on our RAPHS: BBC, R when I met him on the QE2 years ago. boat Skysong as we sail around Skopea Left: Michael and his The film you can watch time and time Limani. Later, Christine and I would Spitting Image puppet. E again… Kind Hearts And Coronets drive along Chapman’s Peak Drive to X, Above: butterflies. ge Right: Alec Guinness in with Alec Guinness and Dennis Price. Cape Point in South Africa, then we’d TTY Kind Hearts And Coronets It’s so deft and deliciously witty. have tea at Belmond Mount Nelson NEXT WEEK PS... l Learn how to draw your Cate Blanchett stars in The Turning, a collection of short films, in house and garden in the final part of our series l Julie Walters cinemas from Friday. Jason Donovan plays Lionel Logue in The on her lavish new period King’s Speech at Chichester Festival Theatre from Thursday. And drama Indian Summers l PLUS Britain’s most Bob Dylan’s new album Shadows In The Night is out Monday detailed TV listings guide 86 weekend DAILY MAIL WEEKEND IS PUBLISHed BY ASSOCIATed NewSPAPERS LTD. PRINTed BY THE POLESTAR GROUP. RegISTERed AS A newSPAPER AT THE POST OFFICE. © ASSOCIATed NewSPAPERS LIMITed 2015. National 31 JANUarY.
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