Legendary newsreader Trevor McDonald has spoken out on his battle against being seen as the “token black man”.
McDonald, best known for his work at ITN, became the company’s first black reporter in 1973.
Wary of how his introduction to British screens could have been received, McDonald was keen to ensure his bedding in process was seamless.
“I wanted to make sure that I was doing what everybody else was doing”, he said.
Trevor McDonald was keen to push himself at ITN
GB NEWS
“In other words, to put it bluntly, I didn’t want to be the token black man on ITN. I wanted to do what everybody else was doing.”
He told John Cleese that his drive led him to Northern Ireland as he sought to carry out the same tasks as his colleagues.
John Cleese spoke to Trevor McDonald on GB News
GBNEWS
“It was probably one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever done”, he said.
“I’d never heard a bomb go off before I went to Belfast. I could hardly spell Kalashnikov.
“I didn’t know what that word meant and here I was thrown into this situation, but I learnt a lot.
“There were always difficulties about the so-called marching season and I thought, ‘what’s the problem about marching?’ you could march wherever you like, that’s not the point.
“The Protestants wanted to march down the Catholic areas, the nationalists of the Catholics wanted to march down the Protestant areas.
“There was almost a kind of aggression to the politics. There was a very strong kind of religious base to some of this.”
McDonald drew a close to his illustrious stint at ITN in 2005, presenting his final ITV News bulletin after more than 30 years at the broadcaster.
He was back on British screens in 2008, where he returned to ITV News at 10.
Upon the conclusion of the US presidential election, McDonald announced he would step down from the broadcaster once more.
His departure from the news realm has not ended his television association, with McDonald presenting a series of documentaries.
His most recent being in October, where he presented Pride of Britain: A Windrush Special for ITV.
