Trevor McDonald

Infobox actor
name = Sir Trevor McDonald


birthdate = 16 August 1939 (age 69)
location = San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago

Sir Trevor McDonald OBE (born George McDonald on 16 August 1939) is a Trinidadian-born British journalist and television presenter. He is a newscaster with ITN, notable for having been the first black news anchor in the UK. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jul/07/mediatop100200381 Sir Trevor McDonald] ] His clear, confident delivery and serious attitude make him one of British television's most trusted reporters. He has won more awards than any other British broadcaster. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4531122.stm Sir Trevor reads final bulletin] ]

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

Early life and career

McDonald 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. His mother had decided to name him Trevor, but when his father took him to be baptised he forgot and named him George McDonald. Despite this McDonald has always gone by the name of Trevor.

McDonald's father was an oil worker.Fact|date=April 2007 He worked for the BBC World Service as a producer in the 1960s, and moved to the United Kingdom at the end of that decade.

ITN

He joined ITN as a reporter in 1973 and steadily rose to become a newsreader by the late 1970s. He consolidated his reputation for excellent reporting when he became "Diplomatic correspondent" at "Channel 4 News" in 1982, and he became "Diplomatic editor" there in 1987. In 1989, he became one of the presenters of "News at 5.40" on ITV, in addition to presenting ITN's weekend bulletins on ITV and presenting "Channel 4 News". He was promoted in 1992 as the sole anchor of "News at Ten", where he arguably became one of the most well-known faces of British television journalism. McDonald stayed with ITN when "News at Ten" was axed in 1999, moving to present the new "ITV Evening News". "News at Ten" was briefly relaunched in 2001, to which McDonald returned to presenting. He presented the "ITV News at Ten Thirty" following "News at Ten"'s second axing. During this period he also hosted Granada Television's current affairs programme "Tonight with Trevor McDonald".

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.

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. Over the closing titles of the last bulletin McDonald presented, the 1992 - 1999 "News at Ten" theme was played instead of the then-current ITV News theme, as a tribute to McDonald. [ITV News at 10:30, Trevor McDonald's last bulletin (December 15, 2005). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcFLFpmc4Pg "Youtube" video] .]

On 31 October 2007 ITV announced that early in 2008, McDonald would come out of retirement to ITN to present the relaunched "News at Ten" together with Julie Etchingham. [cite news
title = "News at Ten" returns to ITV
publisher = itv.com
date = 31 October, 2007
url = http://www.itv.com/news/articles/news-at-ten-returns-to-itv.html
accessdate = 2007-10-31] He told a UK newspaper: "I couldn’t turn down the move back to that iconic time slot." [ [http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article417408.ece Diamonds are for Trevor (The Sun Online)] ] "News at Ten" began broadcasting once again on Monday January 14, 2008. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7183941.stm Martha Kearney's week] ] . He is expected to make his last appearance on the programme in November 2008.

Other work and media appearances

* McDonald is an Honorary Vice President of optical charity Vision Aid Overseas (VAO), alongside Fiona Bruce.
* 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, he has presented the National Television Awards.
* On 21 April 2006, McDonald presented an episode of "Have I Got News For You" with a good degree of success; he delivered the autocue jokes - some of which were extremely - 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. He acts as an advocate for the school in its promotional videos and presides at important events in its calendar. He was notably a guest speaker and presenter of awards at King's College Junior School prizegiving in 2002, where he made a moving eulogy to Tony Hein, a departing member of staff.
* McDonald is the author of biographies of the cricketers Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. He 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 in to the studio to sit with Henry. Trevor returned to "Tiswas" on two further occasions. Firstly, a number of weeks following his original surprise appearance, Trevor 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 Sir Trevor joined Lenny on the sofa to, once again, look back at the old clips and comment upon Lenny's impersonation.
* 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", with Simon Cowell being the programme's "victim".
* In June 2007, McDonald began hosting the new ITV television series "News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald".
* McDonald holds an Honorary Award from the University of Plymouth.

References

External links

* [http://www.vao.org.uk Vision Aid Overseas]
*itv.com|id=tonight/meetthepresenters|title=Trevor McDonald
*imdb|name=Trevor McDonald|id=0568039
*Screenonline name|id=534397|name=Trevor McDonald
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4531122.stm Article on BBC News about Sir Trevor McDonald's final bulletin]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4531230.stm Biographical article on BBC News about Sir Trevor McDonald]