The ex-PM will remember McDonald’s sugary interview with him which Labour politicians condemned as “fawning”.The nation loves this man who pays them the compliment of being more British than themselves. But a vestige of a golden age can quickly look like a relic – especially with Kirsty Young looking over his shoulder.TREVOR’S ADMIRERSMcDonald is subject to many unusual requests. Perhaps the most bizarre one came from a consultant physician who wanted the newscaster to send a message of encouragement to his group of incontinent female patients. The ladies had been asked to think of someone they admired when doing their exercises. This resulted in the call to “Tighten for Trevor”.HIS BIGGEST MISTAKEHis worst moment on screen was when John McCarthy was released, an event which turned into a farce for the ITN team. McCarthy’s plane landed during the commercial break and McDonald was, in any case, lost for words during the event. His father wanted him to be a doctor, or an engineer, or Gary Sobers.
Instead, picking up his familiar sombre tones by listening to the BBC at home, he joined the World Service in 1969, going on to be a reporter, diplomatic correspondent and newscaster for BBC, ITN and Channel 4 News. And a man who once dubbed himself “a West Indian peasant” is at ease advising Blimpish readers on which are the finest poems in the English language. As chair of the Better English Campaign, he has even taken his crusade to a political level. It’s a charming style which has served many purposes, not least conferring respectability on the dumbing down of ITN news, which has increasingly shifted to tabloidesque coverage.McDonald’s fascination with the media began in Trinidad, where he was born the son of an oil refinery worker, who supplemented his small income by raising pigs. Hugely respected for his immaculate presentation and professionalism, he symbolises the charms of a lost past: honesty, integrity, politeness.
Benign neutrality and the perfect grammar of his deracinated English are his trade marks. He is to white Middle Britain the acceptable face of black immigration.So the Bufton Tufton tendency at the Daily Telegraph has no problem accepting a weekly column from him. Given ITV’s obsession with winning eyeballs for advertisers, radical change is on the agenda.
So, all in all, Trevor’s microphone may be on a shaky nail. Nevertheless, at 58, he has had a good innings: on the spot for the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was first to interview Nelson Mandela after his release. And he was famously invited in for a one-to-one with Saddam Hussein while Kuwait’s sand was still fresh between the dictator’s toes. Every advertiser has those well-heeled guys as their chief target.
