'Mandela Would Be Proud'

Sir Trevor McDonald on meeting Nelson Mandela and revisiting South Africa to examine the former president’s legacy…

- Rebecca Fletcher

In 1990, Sir Trevor McDonald received a phone call that led to ‘one of the most cherished memories’ of his career.

Nelson Mandela was due to be released after 27 years in prison and Sir Trevor was one of the few journalists invited to interview the anti-apartheid icon.

‘I was nervous, very nervous,’ Sir Trevor tells TV Times, with a chuckle. ‘I was honoured, of course, but being the first to speak to him came with a lot of pressure. Everybody knew his name but he hadn’t been seen for 27 years, so I had no idea what to expect. And the thought that millions would be watching terrified me!’

However, the former ITV newsreader needn’t have worried. Mandela was charming. ‘He came into the room and shook everybody’s hand before he sat down. He always did that. He had a way of putting people at ease,’ says Sir Trevor. ‘If I’d been put in prison for 27 years, I wouldn’t have emerged as such a nice guy as he did!’

The two struck up a friendship, meeting a further 15 times before the former South African president died in December 2013. And this week, Trevor makes a personal journey to Mandela’s homeland in ITV’s Return to South Africa.

‘It would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday in July, so I felt it was a good time to see what had happened to the people of South Africa and if it was still a land of racial division and inequality,’ explains Sir Trevor, 78, who here reveals more about his visit…

This seems quite a personal journey for you…