BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Sir Trevor McDonald OBE born George McDonald on 16 August 1939 is a Trinidadian-British newsreader and journalist. He had a long career as a news presenter with ITN. He is notable for having been the first black news reader in the UK, and for having won more awards than any other British broadcaster.
McDonald was knighted in 1999 for his services to journalism.
McDonald presented his last ITV News bulletin on 15 December 2005. The veteran newsreader stepped down from his role as anchor after more than 30 years at ITN, but said he had no plans to retire completely from television. At the end of the final programme, he signed off with the words: That brings to an end my association with the news at 10.30. Thank you for watching. Over the opening and closing titles of the bulletin that McDonald presented, the November 1992 to March 1999 ITV News at Ten theme was played as a tribute to McDonald.
- In 2009, McDonald travelled to the Caribbean and hosted the series The Secret Caribbean with Trevor McDonald.
- In 2011, McDonald travelled around the Mediterranean and hosted the series The Secret Mediterranean with Trevor McDonald.
- In 2012, McDonald travelled along the route of the Mississippi River and hosted the series The Mighty Mississippi with Trevor McDonald.
- McDonald presented the TV series Undercover Customs which created reconstructions of major HM Customs and Excise investigations in the UK
- Since their inception in 1995 until 2008, McDonald presented the National Television Awards. He was replaced as presenter for the 2010 event by X Factor host Dermot O'Leary
- On 21 April 2006, McDonald presented an episode of Have I Got News For You; he delivered a number of autocue jokes, some of which were extremely risqué, in his usual sober newscaster manner, the juxtaposition of which prompted team captain Paul Merton,
who usually maintains a straight face on the show, to laugh heartily in
disbelief on numerous occasions. It was McDonald's first appearance in
any capacity on the show since 1992
- McDonald is Chancellor of London South Bank University. He also has intimate ties with King's College School in Wimbledon, a London day school, where he is now a governor
- McDonald is the author of biographies of the cricketers Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd
- McDonald has worked as an editor of poetry anthologies, and his autobiography Fortunate Circumstances was published in 1993.
- 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 into the studio to sit with Henry. McDonald returned to Tiswas on two further occasions. First, a number of weeks after his original surprise appearance, he cropped up during a spoof edition of This Is Your Life to "reminisce" with Lenny Henry about the earlier event. The other appearance occurred during the Tiswas Reunited show (a reunion programme transmitted in June 2007) where McDonald joined Lenny on the sofa once again to look back at the old clips and comment on Henry's impersonation.
- McDonald performed live in Hyde Park in Summer 1996 with The Who, as the newsreader in the group's staging of their Quadrophenia
- In June 2007, McDonald hosted the new ITV version of This Is Your Life, Simon Cowell being the programme's "victim"
- In June 2007, McDonald began hosting the new ITV television series News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald
- In August 2010 McDonald conducted a live on-stage interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Fairfield Halls in Croydon at an event entitled An Audience with Desmond Tutu
- A picture of McDonald was seen at the end of the video I Know Him So Well by Peter Kay and Susan Boyle for Comic Relief 2011.
- A clip from one of McDonald's news broadcasts was shown in the 2011 film The Iron Lady.
- In January 2013 a series titled Inside Death Row with Trevor McDonald aired on ITV in which Mcdonald visited Indiana State Prison interviewing inmates on Death row.
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