The Moral Maze

The Moral Maze is a live discussion programme on BBC Radio 4, broadcast since 1990. Since November 2011 it has also been available as a podcast.

Structure

Four regular panellists discuss moral and ethical issues raised by a recent news story. Michael Buerk delivers a preamble 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.

Panellists

The regular panellists are:

• Claire Fox
• Giles Fraser
• Kenan Malik
• Anne McElvoy
• Michael Portillo
• Melanie Phillips
• Matthew Taylor

The panellists mainly fall into two opposing camps of broadly left- and right-wing viewpoints, and the discussions hence often revolve around whether newer liberal values are eroding more traditional values.

Notable former panellists include Rabbi Hugo Gryn (who died in 1996), Janet Daley, Edward Pearce, Geoffrey Robertson, Michael Mansfield, politician Michael Gove, Ian Hargreaves, scientist Steven Rose, philosophers Simon Blackburn and Roger Scruton, and historian David Starkey, who often attracted controversy for his allegedly blunt manner.

History

The first programme on Monday 20 August 1990 was forty minutes long from 11am, and followed by Poetry Please. It was made by the Factual Unit of Religious Programmes (later called Factual Programmes Religion) at BBC 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 9.00 news, until 9.45 (a slot similar to the current In Our Time). In July 1991, it had moved to 20.05-20.50 on Fridays, replacing Any Questions? for the summer recess. There was then a repeat at 13.00 on the following Saturday, and a phone-in from 14.00-14.30, replacing Any Answers?. There was also an end-of-year programme. In July 1992 it had moved to Thursday mornings following the 9am news. It became a de rigueur listen for Westminster MPs. By 1997 it was fifty-five minutes long, lasting until 10am. 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 22.15.

Michael Buerk has presented the programme since August 1990. David Aaronovitch presents occasional episodes during Buerk's absence.

Originally produced at the BBC North West's New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in Manchester, the programme is now broadcast from Salford Quays.

TV pilot

In early 1994 a television version was considered, which eventually took off on Saturday 10 September 1994 on BBC2 as a trial series of six 45-minute-long programmes broadcast around midnight, perhaps influenced by Channel 4's successful late-night discussion programme After Dark. The pilot had audiences of around 1.3 million. It was last broadcast on 15 October 1994 at 23.00.

Criticism

In his book Bad Thoughts (US title Crimes Against Logic), philosopher Jamie Whyte advises readers to listen to The Moral Maze for innumerable examples of faulty reasoning.

See also

• List of national radio programmes made in Manchester
• The Choice (radio series)
• Heart of the Matter - Joan Bakewell BBC1 programme

References

External links

• Moral Maze minisite on BBC.co.uk