He moved to Canada as a young child before returning to the West Midlands after the failure of his mother's marriage, when Buerk was five.

Buerk's hopes of a career in the Royal Air Force were dashed when he failed an eyesight test at the selection centre.

[6] Buerk began his career in journalism with the Bromsgrove Messenger, South Wales Echo (he shared a house with Sue Lawley in Cardiff), and the Daily Mail.

Buerk's uncompromising reports on the brutalities of the regime resulted in the South African government expelling him from the country after four years in the post.

[7][8] Buerk's reporting of the Ethiopian famine in October 1984 inspired the Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Since July 2012, Buerk has co-presented ITV's Britain's Secret Treasures with Bettany Hughes, looking at fifty of the most remarkable archaeological finds made by the British public.

On 22 October 2014, the BBC apologised for the language used in Buerk's early morning trail for that evening's Moral Maze in which he began: "Nobody comes out of the Ched Evans rape case with any credit – not the victim who'd drunk so much she could barely stand, nor the two footballers who had sex with her in the most sordid of circumstances.

[25] At the Hay-on-Wye literary festival earlier in the year, Buerk criticised contemporary newsreaders for being overpaid autocue-reading "lame brains".

Of the corporation's coverage of the Thames River Pageant celebrating Britain and the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne, he wrote: "The Dunkirk Little Ships, the most evocative reminders of this country's bravest hour, were ignored so that a pneumatic bird-brain from Strictly Come Dancing could talk to transvestites in Battersea Park.

"[27] In an article for Radio Times in April 2014 about 'grey power' in television, Buerk referred to presenters who had gone to employment tribunals over claims of age discrimination.

Quoting a comment by Anne Robinson ("The viewers don't want to watch ugly") he speculated: "She seemed to say it through gritted teeth, or at least a flawless but strangely taut face – a sign perhaps that she had taken her own advice to stop complaining and work on staying attractive.

He said in an interview with Ross Kemp, "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'.

"[32] In August 2019 it was reported that Buerk thought that the obese should be allowed to die an early death in order to save the NHS money.

In an article in the Radio Times Buerk suggested allowing deaths due to obesity could be a benefit to society.