The Business Travel Magazine Aug/Sept 2019

TALKING TRAVEL
Living legend
SIR TREVOR MCDONALD
News veteran and journalist Sir Trevor McDonald loves balmy Caribbean evenings, hates
airports, and describes himself as a coward in a conflict zone, writes Sasha Wood
As the leading newscaster of his
generation, Sir Trevor McDonald
has been responsible for many
landmark TV moments and has interviewed
key historical figures ranging from Saddam
Hussein to Peace Prize winners such as
Nelson Mandela and Benazir Bhutto.
Born in Trinidad, McDonald worked as a
local news reporter before moving to London
to join the BBC in 1969, and has since travelled
far and wide in his profession.
McDonald says he travelled like a king for
his most recent documentary, Indian Train
Adventure, covering his eight-day journey
between Mumbai and Jaipur aboard the
legendary Maharajas' Express.
“India overwhelms the senses. It’s such a
large country, so populous, so crowded and
the driving is utterly mad. It’s something you
have to do once,” says McDonald.
But it has not always been plain sailing.
When he joined ITN in the 1970s he was sent
to Northern Ireland during the height of The
Troubles. “There were people being shot and
bombs going off all the time,” he says. “I was
from Trinidad and used to seeing the odd
skirmish outside the rum shop on a Friday
night, but I’d never heard a bomb go off
before. I must admit there were times when I
was scared out of my wits. I am very cowardly
by nature so I learned to run.”
He reported from Beirut during the Lebanese
civil war, and went to Baghdad before the first
Gulf War to interview Saddam Hussein. In fact,
he lists Beirut among the most surprising
places he’s visited, partly because it managed
to remain so civilized even in the midst of
raging civil war.
“People were fighting and killing each other
during the week and on Sunday morning
people came out and set up little stalls selling
the finest French perfume and Champagne.
I turned up to a fine restaurant and I couldn’t
believe all the tables were full,” he explains.
But McDonald doesn’t always get the chance
to explore when he’s on assignment, so he
frequently revisits places where he’s worked:
“The west coast of America is one of them –
I love San Diego and Santa Monica. You
discover new things every time you go.”
I'm from Trinidad so I
was used to seeing the
odd skirmish outside the rum
shop, but I'd never heard a
bomb go off before”
One of the places McDonald has returned to
often, after working there for many years, is
South Africa. He was the first person to
interview Nelson Mandela when he was
released from prison in 1990 and again when
he became president in 1994. The two
subsequently met on many occasions and
became firm friends.
“It was fascinating to watch the country go
through all the traumas of what it was to what
it wants to be. I saw a lot of changes, but quite
frankly on my last visit about a year ago I was
a little distressed that some of the changes
have not been greater... and quite shocked to
see some of the same slums that were there
when I first visited 25 years ago,” he says.
As a journalist, he has always been
fascinated with meeting world leaders. He was
friends with Benazir Bhutto and interviewees
have included notorious despots such as
Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. He has also been
invited to the White House on several
occasions, interviewing President Clinton and
later President Bush the younger.
McDonald has travelled extensively in the
Caribbean, from Barbados and Antigua to
St Kitts and Nevis. “My father was born in
Grenada and he always used to boast that
their beaches are better than our beaches in
Trinidad,” he says.
“What I like about the Caribbean is that it’s
always warm after 6 or 7 o’clock. Even on
summer evenings here you feel you need a
light sweater, but in the Caribbean you put on
a short-sleeved shirt and pour yourself a large
rum punch, and you can sit out there on the
verandah forever.”
Barbados is also one of his go-to places for
a relaxing holiday, along with Cape Town in
South Africa – “the waterfront area there is
very nice,” says McDonald.
Between travelling for work and sojourns
in South Africa and the Caribbean, the
broadcaster says he has spent far too long in
airports, which are his least favourite aspect
of his globe-trotting exploits: “I approach
them with dread,” he laughs.
That said, his time spent working in troubled
destinations around the globe has nurtured a
certain warmth for British aviation: “I must
confess that it was always nice to get on to a
British Airways flight and hear the captain’s
voice – you always felt you were heading
home and out of trouble.”
48 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com