Michael Buerk Slams 'Infantile' Celebs Like 'Benedict And Emma' For Lecturing Public

Veteran news reporter Michael Buerk has penned a stinging riposte to actors and celebrities who deign to lecture the public on global issues.

Buerk, who has reported from conflicts around the world in a five-decade career, took to the pages of the Radio Times to let rip, taking aim in particular at Benedict Cumberbatch and Emma Thompson.

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“As a superannuated war reporter myself I’m a little sniffy about celebs pratting around among the world’s victims,” he said.

“I hate it when feather-bedded thesps pay flying visits to the desperate to parade their bleeding hearts and trumpet their infantile ideas on what ‘must be done’.

“There’s only so much of the Benedict and Emma worldview you can take.”

Likely Buerk, 70, was referring to Cumberbatch’s plea to audience members following his performance of Hamlet at the Barbican in London last year, over the plight of refugees travelling from Syria.

It hit headlines after he punctuated the impassioned speech with the message 'f**k politicians’.

Appealing for his audiences to pledge money to the charity Save The Children, by the end of the play’s run £150,000 had been raised.

Thompson has long been vocal about her politics, campaigning for Greenpeace over oil drilling in the Arctic.

She’s also an ambassador for the charity ActionAid, a patron of the Refugee Council, a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and campaigns for the Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

At one time, she provided a therapy room in her own offices where victims of torture and refugees could receive treatment.

Meanwhile, last month 145 prominent stars, including Jude Law, Gary Lineker, Idris Elba, Colin Firth and Stephen Fry signed an open letter to David Cameron, appealing for him to allow children living in the migrant camps at Calais into the UK.

Former 'I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here’ contestant Buerk was interviewing actor-turned-journalist Ross Kemp for the Radio Times, ahead of his forthcoming new series on Sky, the first programme of which focusses on immigration.

“I am not trying to be clever. I can’t be clever. I just want to clear up the confusion about who’s coming to my country, the country that I love,” said Kemp.

It’s not the first time that Buerk has lashed out at celebrities.

In 2012, he famously slated the BBC for its coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, calling it 'cringingly inept’ for its use of 'daytime airheads’ and ’D-list celebrities’, branding Tess Daly ‘a pneumatic bird-brain’.

“‘I was so ashamed of the BBC I would have wept if I hadn’t been so angry. The worst thing was that it was deliberate – planned that way to be 'light’ and 'inclusive’,” he added.

So far reps for Benedict Cumberbatch have not responded to Yahoo Movies UK’s requests for comment.

Image credits: Rex Features/Getty/PA/ITV