 Title card from TV series | |
| Genre | Individual cross examinations of successive witnesses by a group of panellists on live radio |
|---|---|
| Running time | 45 mins (Wednesdays 20.00) |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Language | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Hosted by | Michael Buerk |
| Created by | Rev Ernie Rea |
| Produced by | Dan Tierney (BBC Religion & Ethics) |
| Recording studio | BBC Manchester |
| Original release | 20 August 1990 |
| Website | Website |
Moral Maze is a live discussion programme onBBC Radio 4, broadcast since 1990. Since November 2011, it has also been available as apodcast.[1][2]
Four regular panellists discussmoral andethical issues raised by a recent news story.Michael Buerk delivers apreamble launching the topic, then a series of 'witnesses' – experts or other relevant people – are questioned by the panellists, who then discuss what each witness said.
As of 2025, the regular panellists are:
Notable former panellists includeRabbiHugo Gryn (who died in 1996),Janet Daley,Edward Pearce,Geoffrey Robertson,Michael Mansfield, politicianMichael Gove,Claire Fox,Michael Portillo,Ian Hargreaves,Kenan Malik, scientistSteven Rose, philosophersSimon Blackburn,Roger Scruton, andGalen Strawson; and, historianDavid Starkey, who often attracted controversy for his blunt manner.
The first programme on Monday 20 August 1990, was forty minutes long from 11 am, and followed byPoetry Please. It was made by the Factual Unit of Religious Programmes (later called Factual Programmes Religion) atBBC North in Manchester. It was hoped that the programme format would involve the panellists' views being revised during the course of a programme, but this rarely happened.
In April 1991, it had moved to Tuesdays, and followed the 9 am news, until 9:45 am (a slot similar to the currentIn Our Time). In July 1991, it had moved to 8:05 pm until 8:50 pm on Fridays, replacingAny Questions? for the summer recess. There was then a repeat at 1 pm on the following Saturday, and a phone-in from 2 to 2:30 pm, replacingAny Answers?. There was also an end-of-year programme. In July 1992, it had moved to Thursday mornings following the 9 am news. It became ade rigueur listen for Westminster MPs. By 1997, it was fifty-five minutes long, lasting until 10 am. It moved to Wednesday evenings from 13 May 1998, in the 1998 schedule changes, with a repeat of the forty-five-minute programme on Saturday night at 10:15 pm.
Michael Buerk has presented the programme since August 1990.David Aaronovitch has presented occasional episodes during Buerk's absence. More recentlyEdward Stourton andWilliam Crawley have deputised.
Originally produced at theBBC North West'sNew Broadcasting House onOxford Road inManchester, the programme production base isSalford Quays. The programme is broadcast live fromBBC Broadcasting House in London.
In early 1994, a television version was considered, which eventually took off on Saturday 10 September 1994, onBBC2 as a trial series of six 45-minute-long programmes broadcast around midnight, perhaps influenced byChannel 4's successful late-night discussion programmeAfter Dark. The pilot had audiences of around 1.3 million. It was last broadcast on 15 October 1994, at 11 pm.
In his bookBad Thoughts (US titleCrimes Against Logic), libertarian philosopherJamie Whyte, who has been a witness on the programme, advises readers to listen toThe Moral Maze for innumerable examples of faulty reasoning. Journalist and authorNick Cohen has also criticised the programme, in a piece highlighting the media careers of Trotskyite-turned-libertarian former cadres of theRevolutionary Communist Party, centred onSpiked magazine.[3]
On 2 April 2021, Scottish broadcasterLesley Riddoch criticised the programme, for taking an approach where observers and experts would discuss a particular problem, without the actual participants being part of the discussion. Riddoch also stated that the programme was too selective, elitist and abstract.[4]
