EXCLUSIVE
Anchor man
As he joins Saga Magazine as a columnist, one of the country’s leading broadcasters, Sir Trevor McDonald, tells us about his extraordinary life, from humble beginnings in Trinidad to interviewing state leaders
INTERVIEW by JULIA LLEWELLYN SMITH
photography SOPHIA SPRING
Recently, Sir Trevor McDonald attended a function at Buckingham Palace where he had a chat with the King. ‘He said, “How old are you?”’ Sir Trevor recalls with a broad grin. ‘What a cheeky question! Well, I think he meant to say, “You look great”,’ Sir Trevor explains, appearing a little embarrassed. ‘Anyway, I replied, “Much older than you, sir!”’
If the King had said Sir Trevor looked great, he would have been quite right. At 84, the veteran newscaster – regularly voted the most trusted on British television – couldn’t be on finer form. A regular tennis player (‘though after a couple of hours my back aches’), he is impressively trim in a suit and pinstripe shirt (but no tie), although he’s bereft of his trademark black-rimmed specs.
‘I had cataract surgery two years ago, so now I only need glasses for reading and it’s lovely,’ he explains, in that so-familiar voice, sipping a chilled glass of Chardonnay in a pub near his flat in Barnes, southwest London. ‘I have to be careful about my footing these days, but everything on television that used to be a dull red now glows crimson – it’s so clear.’
Even sharper is Sir Trevor’s memory, packed as it is with vignettes of his ‘front-row seats at some of the biggest international political events of my time’.