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Trevor McDonald

Trevor McDonald
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Price Range
£12,000 - £16,000

Type of Entertainment
Presenter & Host - News / Speaker - After Dinner Speaker

Great For...
Corporate Events, Conferences, Award Ceremonies, Launch Events

Trevor McDonald is the former presenter of ITN’s flagship programme, News at Ten.

He was born & educated in Trinidad where his career in the media first began; radio reporter, news presenter & sports journalist. On his first major assignment in 1962 he was sent to London to report on talks at Marlborough House which culminated in setting a date for Trinidad’s Independence.

Sir Trevor came to live in London in August 1969 to work as a Producer for the BBC Overseas Regional Service at Bush House in Aldwych. He went on to produce various current affairs programmes for the BBC World Service & in that capacity worked on the initiation of a number of shows including The World Today which are still part of the BBC World Service schedule.

In 1973 Sir Trevor joined ITN as a general reporter with his first major assignment in Northern Ireland where he covered the province’s ‘troubles’ for more than a decade. He also reported from Dublin, Rome, Brussels, Strasbourg & Luxembourg on negotiations regarding the terms of Britain’s membership & earliest days of the then Common Market, now known as the EU.

Covering sport & politics, Sir Trevor travelled around the world before becoming the Diplomatic Correspondent & Presenter for Channel 4 News in 1982. He reported from every continent covering events and conducting interviews in Egypt, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, India, Pakistan, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, the Soviet Union & Hong Kong.

During this time he also worked extensively in the USA reporting on the unfolding events at the United Nations during the Falklands War from New York and Washington as well as covering a number of Presidential & Congressional Campaigns. Sir Trevor reported on Soviet Communist Party conferences from the time of President Brezhnev & returned to Moscow and Washington to report on East West Summit meetings, prominently among them Reagan & Gorbachev. Sir Trevor’s coverage of the ‘people power’ Philippine elections in 1985 won a BAFTA Award for Channel 4 News.

Sir Trevor continued his career as an ITN presenter. He’d anchored every ITN news programme from what used to be the News at One, the News at 5.40 & the News at 6.30 to the flagship and award winning News at Ten & not just from London but from news locations around the world.

He became Diplomatic Editor in 1982 & in February 1990 and after several visits to Southern Africa went back to Johannesburg to report on Nelson Mandela’s release & to do the first British TV interview with the AN leader for ITN. In November of the same year, just before the start of the first Gulf War, he did the first & the only British television interview with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In the ensuing years at ITN, Sir Trevor conducted the most important television interview of his time with then Libyan President Colonel Gaddafi, the former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, President Bill Clinton & Secretary of State Colin Powell along with a number of American Presidential candidates & Congressional leaders.

Sir Trevor became the first sole presenter of News at Ten in 1992 & anchored the Late Evening News until December 2005. By then, he’d received more awards than any other news broadcaster in Britain including; Richard Dimbleby Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television from BAFTA, Royal Television Society Gold Medal for his Outstanding Contribution to Television News (1998), National Television Award for Outstanding Commitment to Television (2003) (presented to him on live television by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair) & the Royal Television Society’s Judges Award (2005). He was named Newscaster of the Year in 1993, 1997 & 1999 & has regularly topped the polls as the most authoritative & trustworthy news presenter. In January 2008 Sir Trevor returned to ITV News to co-present the re-launched News at Ten.

From 1999 to December 2007 Sir Trevor presented ITV’s bi-weekly flagship current affairs programme, Tonight during which time he interviewed President Bush on two separate occasions & numerous other political figures including Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice & Hilary Clinton.

Sir Trevor McDonald has done charitable work for the Prince’s Trust, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Playing Fields Association, Sight Savers, Royal National Institute for the Blind, Royal Commonwealth Society for the Deaf (which became known later as Sound Seekers), Macmillan Cancer Research & the Leukaemia Trust.

He serves as Patron, Chairman, President or Vice President in a number of other charitable organisations including National Children’s Homes, Shooting Star Childrens Hospice,  Friends of Barnes Hospital & De Paul Trust. He has also helped to promote the work of St. John Ambulance & organisations dealing with awareness of the problems surrounding Sickle Cell, Autism & homelessness amongst young people.

Sir Trevor has travelled to many parts of the country to speak in his capacity as Chairman of the Better English Campaign under the last Conservative Government, was co-chair of a Nuffield Foundation Inquiry into the Teaching of Foreign languages in British schools for which he was honoured by the French & German Governments, has been involved in a number of campaigns to encourage young children to read more widely & speaks regularly to schools and colleges.

He is also Chancellor of London South Bank University & has received Honorary Degrees from at least eight universities.

Sir Trevor McDonald was awarded an OBE in 1992 & was awarded a Knighthood in 1999.

To enquire about or book Trevor McDonald for your event contact Arena Entertainment. Either send an email to info@arenaentertainments.co.uk or speak to one of our booking agents on 0113-239-2222.

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