Britain's Most Popular Broadcaster By Ashton Chambers

New York, June 2002 In your autobiography, 'Fortunate Circumstances', you wrote of your fascination for broadcast journalism, 'with its scope for the imaginative use of language and color.'' I think Mr. Lee Wah,
former Vice-Principal of Naparima College, was indeed gifted with some sort of psychic ability, when he was able to predict with unerring accuracy, that you'd one day be a newscaster of worldwide acclaim and international acceptance.
Take us back, if you will, to your family life in Trinidad, your studies at Naparima College, your association with The Blue Circle Network and where that eventually led to.
Well, I had a very idyllic family life, there was not a lot of money around but it was very happy. There were four of us and we made a lot of our own fun. School was driven by a great desire of my parents to see us all succeed. It was the same for a number of my colleagues. It was a sort of generational thing -- that West Indian parents of our generation had uppermost in their mind, that their children should be better than they were, should do better than they did, and they drove us to succeed.
That same sort of thing was carried on at school. It really grieves me now when I hear about low aspirations and non-motivation in schools, because ours was entirely the opposite. We had teachers and masters, lecturers and tutors who inspired us and gave us a vision of what is possible. In a sense, the sky is the limit. This was told to you by your parents. It was reinforced by your teachers, and after a while, much against your will you began to believe it yourself.
The Blue Circle Network* was a great idea, it was probably a way of getting out of math or something else, in the late Friday afternoon period, and we thought it would be nice to do a
school linkup -- a news bulletin.
I must confess that my part of it was unashamedly stolen from the BBC World News. It really caught fire, and there was a great deal of interest. It had gone beyond the environs of our small
college circle. The rest, to be very honest, I didn't think it would ever end this way.
I had absolutely no idea where this would go. You start out on this road hoping simply to survive. In my case, I worked with you at Rediffusion and then at Radio Trinidad. The grounding there was excellent. One of the things I liked about it was that it gave you a chance to do a variety of things. I did sports, current affairs, I was a disc jockey, did outside broadcasts.
When I came to England, I found that experience really helped me. I discovered that the colleagues with whom I worked had done much less than I in these various fields, although they were my senior.
That fed in me the belief that I could really make a go of it. I felt I could be a contender, as they say in boxing, so I pressed on.
What about your attachment to radio in the Caribbean generally? I do remember your broadcasts on the Federation of the West Indies, or should I say, the unmaking of our attempt at Caribbean
Unity. Do you envisage another attempt at a similar brand of regional unity? Granted, today there is Carifta and Caricom.
It is difficult to say. I am not as closely in touch with what's going on in the Caribbean as I should be, but in broad pragmatic philosophical terms I've always felt that it is inevitable. It is the way of the world.
In North America you have the North American Free Trade Association, which involves in some respects not only Canada but branches down to Mexico. You have the Andean Common Market which embraces all the countries in the southern part of that hemisphere. In Europe the big debate is not about how or if, but when there will be an almost single Europe.
Britain is holding out on matters like a single currency, and certainly trying to defend issues of sovereignty.
The point I am trying to make is that the way of the world is for a kind of greater integration. This is in big, big countries with millions more people than we have, and with many more assets than we have in commercial terms, in economic terms and so on.
It seems to me unanswerable that the islands of the Caribbean should come together. Will they do so in a political federation? I rather doubt it, because I've always thought that one of the reasons for the failure of the old Caribbean federation was that we paid too much attention to the political superstructure and not enough to the economic infrastructure or the economic needs of such a unit.
Maybe with Carifta and Caricom and so on we have got it the right way round, and maybe the economic regionalization would be the engine for change in the political arena.
I say this in kind of abstract terms, for when I go to the Caribbean and see how strongly everyone protects their own independence, it makes me think that there is a broad
pragmatic/philosiphical argument for it.
On the ground I think it's going to be much, much more difficult, and if it does happen, it certainly won't be in the pattern of the old federation at all.
What was your association like with Television in Trinidad?
I did some television only as a freelancer. I read news and I used to do interviews on a program called 'Panorama.' What I'm probably most proud about aside from my work in radio was a TV discussion program called 'Dialogue.'
It was an attempt to inject an element of serious discussion and even controversy, into the rather placid course of Trinidad life.
You know very well, that we are a calm people who have our eyes very strongly focused on the next drink, and the next carnival season, and I thought there was more to life than this, and we should initiate some discussion.
I encountered a lot of problems with it because, for the first time, we tried to have on television an 'opposition people.' You couldn't have political opposition, but you could have people expressing views from the academic sector, and I had a lot of friends at UWI who would come on and talk about Government policies in a subcritical way.
This didn't always go down terribly well, and my endearing memory of it was that, the then manager at TTT,Sonny Rawlins, who would see me every Friday afternoon when I came in to discuss the programs with the producer, and would say to me 'You will nothing tonight to make me lose my job, would you?'.
I would try to assure him that this was so, while doing everything behind his back to make sure that at least his job was not as cozy as he thought it should be.
I always remember that and feel slightly guilty, because I remember the sort of repressed fear on his face when he saw me. His secretary would usher me in with 'He is waiting for you.'
The medium was quite closely watched by the government, and one was not allowed, as in America or as in Britain to have full bloodied political controversy on one program. But we tried
it and I was very proud of it.
The program 'Dialogue' remains one of the most engaging memories of my time in the media in the Caribbean.
So you did cover the entire communications gamut, as it was then -- radio, television, newspapers...
Let us now fast forward to 1969 and Bush House London. Would you pick up from day one at the BBC. What were your initial duties?
First of all, I was astonished at the wonderful atmosphere. I had come to London, which I had known only briefly on a couple trips before and found myself in an alien city, a strange city but one which, by education and the literature I'd had read, I thought I knew.
We had read about Trafalgar Square and the good deeds of Lord Nelson, about the few who did so much for so many, and about Drake and Hawkins and all these people.
It was a strange city, and I was in an international atmosphere.

Bush House is where the BBC does its broadcasting to the world. It is the headquarters of the non-domestic foreign services.
At lunch time you met people from Somalia, the old Soviet Union.
India, Pakistan, Uganda, Czechoslovakia, the Caribbean.
It was a wonderful, wonderful place to be and I really reveled in
that sort of atmosphere.
My job, which is the question you asked, was producing the current affairs programs for the Caribbean and Latin American regions, and very soon after that I started producing programs
for the world service.
I quickly got some indication about what a very powerful voice the BBC really was. I felt in the swim, as it were, in a really large pond. I thought it was amazing to work in a place with such clout. I reveled in it. I enjoyed it.
I would talk to a man called Anatol Goldberg who was a Soviet
expert, a lovely man who I think has since died; Clifford Smith, who was an expert on Commonwealth affairs; Patrick Keetley, who worked for the Guardian, was one of my interviewees, people from the London School of Economics-The International Relations division, to which I had a connection. They all came and pronounced on subjects of international import. It was really a wonderful place to work and I had a great time.
You were quite an eloquent sports commentator in Trinidad. Did you do much sport at the BBC?
It's a very interesting subject, since the Commonwealth Games
are coming up in Manchester shortly. In 1970 there were Commonwealth games in Edinburgh. I had just arrived at the BBC, a few months before. I was eventually assigned there, and worked, with the great McDonald Bailey and other lovely Caribbean athletes, great Jamaican people like Marilyn Neufville and Don Quarry. Kip Keino of Kenya and many others. I had a wonderful time. That was my first of many sports assignments.
When did you branch over to Independent Television?
I went after about three years at Bush House and it was a bit of a joke and a dare really. I kept saying to people at Bush House that I had done television, at the bar, after the fifth drink. One night someone said to me. 'Either shut up about it, or apply to this place called ITN. I sobered up when I went home and wrote a letter, and much to my astonishment I was asked to come for an audition. The audition is still on the files and about fifteen years ago I watched it, and it was the most appalling performance I've ever seen. I conned them into believing that I hadn't done television for three years since leaving the West Indies and that I could be much, much better.
Much later on the head of ITN,said to me 'I liked the voice. I liked the presentation, and I decided to take a chance and offer you a job.' And there I was.
As a diplomatic correspondent you must have done an extensive amount of traveling. What assignments stand out?
That's so difficult to say. I loved covering American politics. Americans do have a real sense of freedom of information, and within three days of arriving from London, I was on the Reagan
plane, or on the Carter plane, going to campaign stops.
I sat at the back of the plane mind you. A long, long way behind the big accredited American correspondents, but I was still thrilled to be on the President's plane going to Raleigh, North Carolina or to Sacramento, California or wherever.
I covered a lot of American presidential campaigns. I got to know America very much, and have such a great love of it, and regard for it. I love that, its something I'll always remember.
I went to the Far East as the diplomatic correspondent. The sheer breath and expanse of the area; the sheer size of places, the variety of peoples and the complexities of issues really fascinated me.
I did a lot in Europe when Britain was still negotiating its way into various bits of the Common Market, as it was then; now called the European Community. I went to Iraq, just before the Gulf war, and did what is still the only British interview with Saddam Hussein.
I visited South Africa when Mandela was released. I got the first television interview with him.
I also went when the free elections were held for the first time, and saw him, and have seen him a lot since then, and kept in touch. That remains with me one of the most glorious and memorable
things I've ever done. I say that for one reason. We all dream and read about statesmen in almost a sort of abstract way. In Mandela I found the living reality.
Here is a man who has spent 27 unconscionably long years in prison, came out and his first words were about forgiveness, nation building and looking to the future.
I never forget that interview I did with him. We stayed up almost all night, trying to decide how to get him to talk about the big story, headlined,'Mandela tells Trevor 'I was badly treated in prison.'
' Never, never, never.' He said that's behind us now. Let's look ahead. He refused to be anything but a progressive, forward looking statesman, and I shall always think that was one of the most sensational memories of my career.
I've never quite met anyone like that. The day after I interviewed him, he stood that afternoon
outside his little house in Soweto with Walter Sisulu, another ANC colleague who had also been in prison. He addressed the kids who had been boycotting school in protest against apartheid. He said, 'I'm here today to tell you, you must go back to school because education is dreadfully important and Walter Sisulu and I are old men and wouldn't be here for very much longer.'
He has only just come out, but he was looking to the future, and talking about it -- in terms of which, politicians today never do -- about his own political mortality, about the fact that he wasn't going to be there forever. Astonishing! Astonishing! I'll always remember that.
While on this subject, any special advice to Caribbean youth, and what would you suggest to folks embarking on a career in journalism?
The thing I would say to them is that people have to work hard. I remember the days when we would write introductions to what we were doing. We would sit and do things very diligently. We would think about it. That kind of preparation and hard work I think is essential. The idea that you can drift into this business, swim along and hope to survive, is for the birds. It doesn't happen. It may if you're lucky, but it is not feasible. Persistent hard work is the key.
Care to talk a bit about your immediate family?
I have two older children with my first wife, from whom I am divorced. They live in Johannesburg. My son, because he loves living there, said that one of the few things I did for him
was to tell him what a nice place it is, and my daughter and her partner, who also works in South Africa. They are hopefully coming to London in December.
I have a young son who is thirteen and has just done his common entrance. He will be going to Kings College in September. He not only got an Arts scholarship to the school, but almost got straight A's in his common entrance. So we are very pleased about that. My wife I met at ITN, and she tries to keep us all in order in a very disorganized house.
As you look to the future, what's next?
I'm blank at the moment. Lots of possibilities, nothing firm. I don't know. I really had a great time. I don't want to give up yet. I say to people in England, they don't seem to understand, the idea of quiet retirement in some country town growing roses is a very English idea. I am British but not English, in that sense. I am very West Indian. I take the cue from my father, who many years after he retired would still say to me 'I am trying to do a little bit on the side with a little Insurance business. He was always striving, like Tennyson's Ulysses, he was always trying to do something else. I suspect I'll be the same. A bore to my family, but never ceasing to want to do something more. I'd probably die on the way to work in a car, or hopefully, happily in bed, preparing to do some other radio or television program.
I think probably my life at ITN will come to an end. I've been here over thirty years. After that time they begin to tire of seeing you around, but there are a lot of people who kindly make offers
of various things. I'll see. I have until mid-2004 to make up my mind.
Don't know if you'd care to comment here, but what are your thoughts of the current political situation at home.
There is a bit of a stalemate, and in political terms I always think stalemates don't do very well for countries, really. I hope the deadlock will be resolved, and I hope the Trinidad Government will go on doing what they should; have a mandate to do which is to try and improve the lot of the people. It's tough out there in the world, and Trinidadians like everybody else, need to have a government which looks after their interest, and I hope that happens pretty soon.
Do you ever think of returning home for a career in politics?
Years of observing politics as a correspondent have weaned me off any ideas that I may have had about that. I am almost repulsed by the idea. I don't like it at all. I am an observer and a commentator. I have great respect for good politicians. I don't think I can be one of them.

Sir Trevor's degrees and accolades are legend, and he has received more awards than any other news broadcaster in Britain. Among these are:
--He was honored by the Royal Television Society for his outstanding contribution to television news,having previously been voted 'the most authoritative and trustworthy' newsreader.
--In 1999 Trevor was named Newscaster of the Year for the third time,having won before in 1993 and 1997. Later that same year he received the Richard Dimbleby Award for outstanding contribution to Television.
--A Radio Times poll in August 2001 found Trevor voted as the most trusted TV Celebrity.
Among his Honorary Degrees are an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from South Bank University, an Honorary Doctor of Letters of Plymouth University, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) of the University of the West Indies, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University from the Open University, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Nottingham University and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University from Surrey University, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Southampton Institute, an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool's John Moores University.
In 1999 he was appointed Chancellor of the South Bank University. He was Chairman of a steering group set up to encourage the use of better English in schools and the workplace, and in the spring of 1998 he was named Chairman of the Nuffield Foundation, to encourage the learning of foreign languages.
In addition to his autobiography which was published in 1993, he has written biographies of West Indian Cricketers Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd.
He co-wrote 'The Queen and the Commonwealth' marking the Queen's 60th birthday. He has also written two poetry books, anthologies entitled 'Favorite Poems' and Trevor Mc Donald's World of Poetry'
He received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honors List for 1999, having been previously awarded the OBE in 1992.
Sir Trevor, hats off old chap!
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*The Blue Circle Network - a weekly broadcast program for students,
using the school's public address system, was begun by Mr. James Lee
Wah in 1957, as was a student newspaper The Blue Circle Supplement.
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