The broadcaster Michael Buerk will spend this evening chairing the 500th edition of The Moral Maze live from the Royal Society of Medicine. He has chaired these debates since 1997. Expert witnesses are interrogated fiercely, though the debates often throw out more heat than light. He won many awards for his 1984 coverage of the famine in Ethiopia and the images of the country’s troubles inspired Live Aid concerts around the world. Michael Buerk is 63 today. RGT
Other birthdays
Roy Dean, writer and composer, 82; Phillip DeFreitas, cricketer, 43; Len Deighton, author, 80; Milos Forman, film director, 77; Colin Jackson, athlete, 42; Prue Leith, cookery writer and caterer, 69; Gary Neville, Manchester United and England footballer, 34;