Sir Trevor McDonald - Early life and career, ITN, Other Work, Trivia

Television journalist and newscaster, born in Trinidad. He worked in the media in Trinidad in the 1960s, joining the Caribbean section of the World Service in London in 1969. He became a reporter for ITN in 1973, then a sports correspondent (1978), diplomatic correspondent (1980), and diplomatic editor (1987). After doing some newscasting for ITN and Channel Four, he joined ITN's News at Ten (1990–9), becoming a nationally known personality. From 1999 he has presented the weekly news programme Tonight With Trevor McDonald, and also that year received the BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award for his contribution to factual television. He presented ITN's late night bulletin for many years, making his final appearance in December 2005. In 2003 he received a National Television Award for special achievement, and in 2005 was honoured with a Royal Television Society journalism award for lifetime achievement. His books include biographies of cricketers Clive Lloyd (1985) and Viv Richards (1987) and a volume of autobiography, Fortunate Circumstances (1993). He was knighted in 1999.

Sir Trevor McDonald, OBE (born 16 August 1939) is a Trinidadian-born British television presenter. Until 2005, he was a newscaster with ITN, notable for having been the first black news anchor in the UK.

McDonald is now seen as a part of the broadcasting establishment, and was knighted in 1999.

Early life and career

He was born in Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies and received his secondary education at Naparima College in San Fernando where he got his start in broadcasting through the Blue Circle Network, a school-wide broadcast. Despite this McDonald has always gone by the name of Trevor.

McDonald's father was an oil worker, and the family came from an unprivileged background.

ITN

He joined ITN as a reporter in 1973 and steadily rose to become a newsreader by the late 1970s. He presented the News at Ten bulletin from 1991 to 1999, and from 2001 until 2004, when News at Ten was briefly relaunched &

Indeed, on 29 November 2005, speculation that he was about to leave ITV to work elsewhere ended when he signed a further two year contract involving producing both a documentary show and a new series of interviews, which will be of a wider general interest than the work he has done up till now.

McDonald presented his last ITV News bulletin on 15 December 2005. Over the end titles of his last programme the old News at Ten end theme was played.

Other Work

Before joining the News at Ten, McDonald was diplomatic editor on Channel 4 News. McDonald presented the TV series Undercover Customs which created reconstructions of the major HM Customs and Excise investigations in the UK. On 21 April 2006, McDonald presented an episode of Have I Got News For You to some degree of success; It was McDonald's first appearance in any capacity on the show since 1992. McDonald is Chancellor of London South Bank University. McDonald is the author of biographies of the cricketers Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd.

Trivia

A great lover of cricket, he has admitted to failing Norman Tebbit's notorious Englishness cricket test by supporting the Trinidad and West Indies cricket teams. He is also a member of Surrey County Cricket Club and regularly attends matches at the Oval. Lenny Henry's comic character Trevor McDoughnut, is a spoof of McDonald. McDonald once surprised Henry during a performance of McDoughnut on Tiswas by walking in to the studio to sit with Henry.