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125-475: Tiswas ( / ˈ t ɪ z w ɒ z / ; an acronym of "Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile") was a British children's television series that originally aired on Saturday mornings from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV . It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become a regular presenter on the show) following a test period in 1973 when he tried out
250-408: A Tiswas T-shirt. Acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps with no punctuation . For some, an initialism or alphabetism , connotes this general meaning, and an acronym
375-428: A numeronym . For example, "i18n" abbreviates " internationalization ", a computer-science term for adapting software for worldwide use; the "18" represents the 18 letters that come between the first and the last in "internationalization". Similarly, "localization" can be abbreviated "l10n"; " multilingualization " "m17n"; and " accessibility " "a11y". In addition to the use of a specific number replacing that many letters,
500-641: A single word ("television" or "transvestite", for instance), and is in general spelled without punctuation (except in the plural). Although "PS" stands for the single English word " postscript " or the Latin postscriptum , it is often spelled with periods ("P.S.") as if parsed as Latin post scriptum instead. The slash ('/', or solidus ) is sometimes used to separate the letters in an acronym, as in "N/A" ("not applicable, not available") and "c/o" ("care of"). Inconveniently long words used frequently in related contexts can be represented according to their letter count as
625-498: A 1940 translation of a novel by the German writer Lion Feuchtwanger . It is an unsettled question in English lexicography and style guides whether it is legitimate to use the word acronym to describe forms that use initials but are not pronounced as a word. While there is plenty of evidence that acronym is used widely in this way, some sources do not acknowledge this usage, reserving
750-435: A Punch & Judy puppeteer to create a 'villain' character called 'The Phantom Flan Flinger', who would be the black-clad masked nemesis of the presenting team, and the main instigator of pie-throwing chaos. The "phantom" was later revealed to be Ben Mills, a taxi driver from Cheswick Green near Solihull . John Gorman made his debut in this series, but with just four appearances, it would not be until series 5 that he became
875-427: A desk in a continuity studio, the pair had to rely on ad-libs and jokes sent in by viewers. Within a few weeks, the show was moved to studio 3 at ATV Centre (a studio usually reserved for amongst other programmes, the news magazine programme, ATV Today ) from which Tiswas was produced for the majority of its run. Due to an industrial dispute by technicians at ATV, this initial run was only nine programmes in length, but
1000-617: A different meaning. Medical literature has been struggling to control the proliferation of acronyms, including efforts by the American Academy of Dermatology. Acronyms are often taught as mnemonic devices: for example the colors of the rainbow are ROY G. BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). They are also used as mental checklists: in aviation GUMPS stands for gas-undercarriage-mixture-propeller-seat belts. Other mnemonic acronyms include CAN SLIM in finance, PAVPANIC in English grammar, and PEMDAS in mathematics. It
1125-543: A documentary called An Hour to Catch a Killer , and both Death Row 2018 with Trevor McDonald , and James Bulger: A Mother's Story with Trevor McDonald in February 2018. In September 2018, he presented To Catch a Serial Killer with Trevor McDonald , and Fred & Rose West: The Real Story with Trevor McDonald in February 2019. In January 2021, McDonald presented a two-part documentary called And Finally… with Trevor McDonald . In May 2021, McDonald co-presented
1250-463: A few competitions and "daft stuff" between the programmes. Tiswas began life as a 'links' strand between many 'filler' programmes, such as cartoons and old films . The popularity of the presenters' links soon eclipsed the staple diet of filler. The correct meaning of the Tiswas initials - Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile - was confirmed by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host Chris Tarrant on
1375-472: A joke (which often ended with the Phantom Flan Flinger – standing behind Henry – slapping two flans into either side of Henry's head); or performed a spoof magic trick. From the fourth series onwards, the series was frequently visited by the Phantom Flan Flinger , who would throw custard pies ("flans"), buckets of water, gunge , sprayers , etc. around the studio at all and sundry. Both Tarrant and
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#17328595683121500-414: A late-night version of Tiswas intended for an adult audience, which would debut in 1982. The only regular Tiswas presenter left was Sally James, who stayed on for series 8. The last series had its format heavily tinkered with by ATV management. They believed that the adult audience should be avid viewers of Chris' 'late-night' Tiswas , and therefore Tiswas itself should focus on its child audience. It
1625-627: A lawyer, he began working in broadcasting through Naparima College 's Blue Circle Network in San Fernando. McDonald's professional work started when he was a radio reporter for Radio Trinidad , news presenter and sports journalist for Trinidad Television as well as newspapers and radio in the early 1960s. He became a producer for both the BBC World Service and the BBC Caribbean Service in 1962. In 1969, McDonald moved to London and
1750-595: A lot, for it was all recorded rather than the live chaos of its predecessor. It mainly consisted of comedy sketches, with some live music acts - usually Thin Lizzy and Roy Wood . Saturday Stayback received much less controversy than O.T.T. , and also introduced new talent such as Phil Cool and Tony Slattery . It lasted only six episodes. Chris Tarrant and Bob Carolgees were the only ex- Tiswas personnel regularly seen on screen, and John Gorman helped out on writing duty. A definitive line-up of Tiswas presenters regrouped for
1875-525: A mechanical bird flying above it, but later, Chris Wroe (who drew all of the classic caricatures of the Tiswas team) replaced this with a drawing of the Phantom Flan Flinger. The first series was intended to be eleven episodes, purely acting as links between the usual staple fillers of old films and cartoons that ATV would transmit on Saturday mornings. Presented by Chris Tarrant and John Asher from merely
2000-571: A media training course entitled "Deal with the Media with Sir Trevor McDonald". McDonald presented a special edition of Countdown in September 2021 as part of Channel 4's Black To Front Day . In 2021, McDonald appeared as the titular character in E4 's revival of GamesMaster . In November 2022, as part of the game show's 40th anniversary, McDonald was a guest presenter on Countdown . In March 2024, McDonald
2125-760: A medial decimal point . Particularly in British and Commonwealth English , all such punctuation marking acronyms and other capitalized abbreviations is now uncommon and considered either unnecessary or incorrect. The presence of all-capital letters is now thought sufficient to indicate the nature of the UK , the EU , and the UN . Forms such as the U.S.A. for "the United States of America " are now considered to indicate American or North American English . Even within those dialects, such punctuation
2250-452: A number of times in this series was Norman Collier , the Yorkshire comedian best known for his broken microphone routine and chicken impressions. Another by-product of Tiswas ' s increased audience was the boost to merchandise sales: an annual book was established, and there was a tour of universities (recognising their adult and teenaged audience) by the Tiswas team, under the name of
2375-574: A one-hour documentary called Trevor McDonald & Charlene White: Has George Floyd Changed Britain? with Charlene White . McDonald presented The Killing of PC Harper: A Wife's Story on 17 March 2022, and Pride of Britain: A Windrush Special in October 2023. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in January 1990. In December 1996, McDonald presented the "Hogmanay at the Palace" from Scone Palace . He
2500-407: A period when the letters are pronounced individually, as in " K.G.B. ", but not when pronounced as a word, as in " NATO ". The logic of this style is that the pronunciation is reflected graphically by the punctuation scheme. When a multiple-letter abbreviation is formed from a single word, periods are in general not used, although they may be common in informal usage. "TV", for example, may stand for
2625-443: A poor household in the village of St. Margaret in the south of Trinidad, and is the oldest of four children in his family. McDonald did not receive much of an education at school, going against his parent's wishes, but they ensured his English was of high standard. His father supplemented the small income by mending shoes and keeping pigs in his spare time to fund the family's education. Although his mother wanted him to become
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#17328595683122750-516: A print and broadcast journalist for Naparima College 's Blue Circle Network. He began his professional career with Radio Trinidad as a reporter and worked as a news reader and sports journalist for Trinidad Television . McDonald was employed by BBC Radio in 1969 as a producer, based in London but still broadcasting to the Caribbean. In 1973, he began his long association with ITN as a general reporter and
2875-417: A regular performer from November onwards. Scottish and Granada dropped the series in 1978 in favour of showing other programmes but began carrying the series again in 1979. HTV continued to opt in and out of the programme during Ten on Saturday . Bob Carolgees made his debut in early 1979, having been told to go on the programme by Irish comic Frank Carson . Carolgees appeared again two weeks later, and Chris
3000-466: A regular visitor to the Tiswas studios. Likewise, child performer Paul Hardin made sporadic appearances. The programme expanded its footprint further outside its home region. As well as appearing in part on HTV, Anglia , Border , Granada and Scottish Television began to screen Tiswas in its entirety. Anglia dropped the series a number of times to pick up other regions' Saturday morning programmes throughout Tiswas ' s history. John Gorman became
3125-556: A result. McDonald remained with ITN when News at Ten was axed by ITV on 5 March 1999, moving to present the new ITV Evening News from 1999 to 2001. News at Ten was briefly relaunched for three nights a week on 22 January 2001, to which McDonald returned as a presenter. He presented the ITV News at 10.30 following News at Ten ' s second axing in January 2004. From 1999 to 2007, McDonald hosted ITV 's flagship current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald . The show
3250-562: A resurrection of Tiswas on the ITV Telethon of 1988. This took place in LWT's South Bank studios in London , culminating in an outside performance of "The Bucket of Water Song". In late 2005, ITV's Saturday morning show Ministry of Mayhem had a special edition featuring presenters from past Saturday morning shows, including Tiswas . Representing Tiswas was Sally James, although Chris Tarrant did
3375-436: A single word, such as NATO (as distinct from B-B-C )" but adds later "In everyday use, acronym is often applied to abbreviations that are technically initialisms, since they are pronounced as separate letters." The Chicago Manual of Style acknowledges the complexity ("Furthermore, an acronym and initialism are occasionally combined (JPEG), and the line between initialism and acronym is not always clear") but still defines
3500-460: A talent spot. This person was Matthew Lewis, formerly known as Matthew Butler, who performed his unique rendition of the song back in 1980 on Tiswas when he was aged five. Presenters Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood took the opportunity to praise Matthew, as they are fans of Tiswas , and also to dispel recent tabloid rumours of Dick and Dom resurrecting Tiswas on ITV. However, Wood did present one episode of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow wearing
3625-497: A twentieth-century phenomenon. Linguist David Wilton in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends claims that "forming words from acronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century phenomenon. There is only one known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is colinderies or colinda , an acronym for
3750-437: A unique act by a five-year-old boy, Matthew Butler. Encouraged by his Tiswas -obsessed mother, Butler auditioned for the series wearing a rabbit costume and sang the song " Bright Eyes " made famous by the animated film Watership Down , although his own singing ability was rather poor. Tarrant found this so amusing that he arranged for him to appear on the following Tiswas , as well as many subsequent editions. Also appearing
3875-541: A video link-up for a brief interview during the show. Out of the cult Saturday morning shows that were focused on, Tiswas was significantly the most prominent, with many clips shown from it, and even a re-enactment of two Tiswas staples - the Cage and the Pass The Pie game. In December 2005, BBC Saturday morning show Dick and Dom in da Bungalow featured a thirty-year-old man singing "Bright Eyes" with his friends as part of
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4000-471: A word, an abbreviation is not an acronym." In contrast, some style guides do support it, whether explicitly or implicitly. The 1994 edition of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage defends the usage on the basis of a claim that dictionaries do not make a distinction. The BuzzFeed style guide describes CBS and PBS as "acronyms ending in S". Acronymy, like retronymy , is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there
4125-639: A word. American English dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster , Dictionary.com's Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary as well as the British Oxford English Dictionary and the Australian Macquarie Dictionary all include a sense in their entries for acronym equating it with initialism , although The American Heritage Dictionary criticizes it with
4250-572: Is a subset with a narrower definition: an initialism pronounced as a word rather than as a sequence of letters. In this sense, NASA / ˈ n æ s ə / is an acronym but USA / j uː ɛ s ˈ eɪ / is not. The broader sense of acronym , ignoring pronunciation, is its original meaning and in common use. Dictionary and style-guide editors dispute whether the term acronym can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced as words, and they do not agree on acronym spacing , casing , and punctuation . The phrase that
4375-429: Is a parody of McDonald. McDonald once surprised Henry during a performance of "McDoughnut" on Tiswas by walking into the studio to sit with Henry. McDonald returned to Tiswas on two further occasions. First, a number of weeks after his original surprise appearance, he cropped up during a spoof edition of This Is Your Life to "reminisce" with Lenny Henry about the earlier event. The other appearance occurred during
4500-488: Is a question about how to pluralize acronyms. Often a writer will add an 's' following an apostrophe, as in "PC's". However, Kate L. Turabian 's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , writing about style in academic writings, allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". Turabian would therefore prefer "DVDs" and "URLs" but "Ph.D.'s". The style guides of
4625-714: Is a recipient of the National Television Award for Special Recognition and the BAFTA Fellowship . Trevor McDonald was born on 16 August 1939 in San Fernando , Trinidad , an island in the West Indies that was a British colony at the time. He is the son of Josephine and Lawson McDonald, a self-taught engineer who worked on an oil refinery. McDonald is of Dougla heritage, his mother being of African descent and his father being of Indian descent. He grew up in
4750-707: Is becoming increasingly uncommon. Some style guides , such as that of the BBC , no longer require punctuation to show ellipsis ; some even proscribe it. Larry Trask , American author of The Penguin Guide to Punctuation , states categorically that, in British English , "this tiresome and unnecessary practice is now obsolete." Nevertheless, some influential style guides , many of them American , still require periods in certain instances. For example, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage recommends following each segment with
4875-411: Is common for grammatical contractions (e.g. don't , y'all , and ain't ) and for contractions marking unusual pronunciations (e.g. a'ight , cap'n , and fo'c'sle for "all right", "captain", and "forecastle"). By the early twentieth century, it was standard to use a full stop/period/point , especially in the cases of initialisms and acronyms. Previously, especially for Latin abbreviations , this
5000-631: Is especially important for paper media, where no search utility is available to find the first use.) It also gives students a convenient review list to memorize the important acronyms introduced in a textbook chapter. Expansion at first use and abbreviation keys originated in the print era, but they are equally useful for electronic text . While acronyms provide convenience and succinctness for specialists, they often degenerate into confusing jargon . This may be intentional, to exclude readers without domain-specific knowledge. New acronyms may also confuse when they coincide with an already existing acronym having
5125-464: Is generally said as two letters, but IPsec for Internet Protocol Security is usually pronounced as / ˌ aɪ ˈ p iː s ɛ k / or / ˈ ɪ p s ɛ k / , along with variant capitalization like "IPSEC" and "Ipsec". Pronunciation may even vary within a single speaker's vocabulary, depending on narrow contexts. As an example, the database programming language SQL is usually said as three letters, but in reference to Microsoft's implementation
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5250-459: Is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of false etymology , called a folk etymology , for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in historical linguistics , and are examples of language-related urban legends . For example, " cop " is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol", and " posh " from " port outward, starboard home ". With some of these specious expansions,
5375-428: Is the subject. In addition, the three video compilations that have been released for sale have been packaged around a seventh series theme, with the bulk of the clips also being from this age. Midway through this series, Chris Tarrant decided to leave upon its conclusion. Bob Carolgees, Lenny Henry and John Gorman also left after the final edition of series 7. (28 March 1981) They had decamped to start work on O.T.T. ,
5500-415: Is traditionally pronounced like the word sequel . In writing for a broad audience, the words of an acronym are typically written out in full at its first occurrence within a given text. Expansion At First Use (EAFU) benefits readers unfamiliar with the acronym. Another text aid is an abbreviation key which lists and expands all acronyms used, a reference for readers who skipped past the first use. (This
5625-493: The Early Evening News and rotated that bulletin along with the weekend news duties with Fiona Armstrong . McDonald was promoted on 9 November 1992 as the main presenter of News at Ten when the bulletin was revamped from its two-presenter format to a one-newsreader format after market research determined that audiences preferred him over younger colleagues. He became a well-known face on British television screens as
5750-562: The 1978 FIFA World Cup . He ultimately concentrated on international politics between January 1980 and 1982 as diplomatic correspondent and newsreader. This came after Ryan suggested that McDonald "be like Sandy Gall " and travel the world as a reporter, combining that role with reading the news on occasion. From 1982 to 1987 he was employed as a diplomatic correspondent and newsreader of the ITN-produced Channel 4 News evening bulletin, but returned to ITV in early 1989, presenting
5875-649: The 1999 Birthday Honours for his services to broadcasting and journalism, having previously been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours . McDonald was awarded with the National Television Award for Special Recognition in 2003 , the RTS Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, and was inducted into the CBU Caribbean Media Hall Of Fame in the same year. He
6000-458: The Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that year." However, although acronymic words seem not to have been employed in general vocabulary before the twentieth century (as Wilton points out), the concept of their formation is treated as effortlessly understood (and evidently not novel) in an Edgar Allan Poe story of the 1830s, " How to Write a Blackwood Article ", which includes
6125-612: The Modern Language Association and American Psychological Association prohibit apostrophes from being used to pluralize acronyms regardless of periods (so "compact discs" would be "CDs" or "C.D.s"), whereas The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage requires an apostrophe when pluralizing all abbreviations regardless of periods (preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's"). Possessive plurals that also include apostrophes for mere pluralization and periods appear especially complex: for example, "the C.D.'s' labels" (the labels of
6250-533: The Restoration witticism arranging the names of some members of Charles II 's Committee for Foreign Affairs to produce the "CABAL" ministry . OK , a term of disputed origin, dates back at least to the early nineteenth century and is now used around the world. Acronyms are used most often to abbreviate names of organizations and long or frequently referenced terms. The armed forces and government agencies frequently employ acronyms; some well-known examples from
6375-573: The Tiswas Reunited programme in 2007 resulted in the discovery of further footage. On 2 January 1982 Tarrant, Carolgees, Gorman, Randolph Sutherland and Henry launched a late-night show - with the up-and-coming comics Alexei Sayle and Helen Atkinson-Wood called O.T.T. (standing for "Over the Top") which was effectively an "adult" version of Tiswas - in other words, it attempted to be just as anarchic, but with swearing and occasional topless women. It
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#17328595683126500-648: The Tiswas Reunited show (a reunion programme broadcast in June 2007) where McDonald joined Lenny Henry on the sofa once again to look back at the old clips and comment on Henry's impersonation. McDonald performed live in Hyde Park in June 1996 with the Who , as the newsreader in the group's staging of their rock opera, Quadrophenia . In 1997, he was made chairman of the Better English Campaign steering group to encourage
6625-606: The Tiswas Reunited special of 2007, although Today Is Saturday: Wear A Smile had also been often cited, albeit incorrectly. "Tiswas", as a word meaning "A state of nervous agitation or confusion ... physical disorder or chaos", is attested from 1960 by the Oxford English Dictionary. It was originally produced as a Midlands regional programme by ATV , and was first broadcast live on 5 January 1974. The then federal structure of ITV , with its independent regional companies, meant that not all of these stations broadcast
6750-472: The soap opera Crossroads ) and in a desire to make the station more upmarket than its previous incarnation took the evidence of declining audiences for the new format as justification to axe Tiswas after series 8, the final episode of Tiswas was transmitted live on 3 April 1982, ending the entire show with the cast singing " Auld Flang Syne ." Almost every edition of Tiswas was transmitted live, and only recorded in case of any future IBA investigation (as
6875-643: The strapline for the advert was "Are you in?". The campaign had to be suspended after the announcement of the 2024 general election . McDonald holds honorary degrees of either doctor of laws or doctor of letters from the University of Plymouth , the Open University , Liverpool John Moores University , the Southampton Institute and the University of the West Indies . He was named Newscaster of
7000-480: The "belief" that the etymology is acronymic has clearly been tongue-in-cheek among many citers, as with "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden" for " golf ", although many other (more credulous ) people have uncritically taken it for fact. Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies: " shit " from "ship/store high in transit" or "special high-intensity training" and " fuck " from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent/command of
7125-463: The 160-character SMS limit, and to save time, acronyms such as "GF" ("girlfriend"), "LOL" ("laughing out loud"), and "DL" ("download" or "down low") have become popular. Some prescriptivists disdain texting acronyms and abbreviations as decreasing clarity, or as failure to use "pure" or "proper" English. Others point out that languages have always continually changed , and argue that acronyms should be embraced as inevitable, or as innovation that adapts
7250-461: The 18 letters between the initial "i" and the final "n"). Authors of expository writing will sometimes capitalize or otherwise distinctively format the initials of the expansion for pedagogical emphasis (for example, writing: "the onset of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)" or "the onset of c ongestive h eart f ailure (CHF)"). Capitalization like this, however, conflicts with the convention of English orthography, which generally reserves capitals in
7375-461: The British press may render it "Nato"), but uses lower case in " Unicef " (from "United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund") because it is more than four letters, and to style it in caps might look ungainly (flirting with the appearance of "shouting capitals"). While abbreviations typically exclude the initials of short function words (such as "and", "or", "of", or "to"), this is not always
7500-550: The Dog. John Gorman , former member of 1960s cult band The Scaffold , was also a presenter. On the programme, Birmingham folk-singer and comedian Jasper Carrott was to introduce the nation to the "Dying Fly Dance". Like its cleaner BBC counterpart, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop , it had a running order but no script (with the exception of some specific sketches). The programme was broadcast from Studio 3 at ATV Centre in Birmingham ; this
7625-465: The Flan Flinger would take great delight in trying to 'flan' cameramen who would go to great lengths to avoid being hit. The original logo featured the word "TISWAS" in chunky letters. A later version of this logo featured a circle going round the edge with "Today Is Saturday Watch And Smile" embossed upon it. The classic "zig-zag" logo designed by Stuart Kettle appeared in 1977 – this initially featured
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#17328595683127750-493: The Four Bucketeers, which tied in with their spin-off album on CBS Records . This was all born out of one feature of the sixth series - "The Bucket of Water Song", which was such a hit with the viewers that it evolved from an intended one-off to an almost regular part of Tiswas . Tiswas had been off air due to the massive strike by ITV technicians which lasted 11 weeks from August to October 1979. By now, ATV had increased
7875-465: The Midlands for the first time, on HTV Cymru Wales and HTV West, filling up their 'round-the-regions' compilation of Saturday morning programmes called Ten on Saturday . This series marked an end to the provincial micro-budget shows of the previous series, as the initial edition of this series brought significant changes. Sally James was drafted in as the series' first regular female presenter. She had been
8000-564: The U.S. Navy, is "COMCRUDESPAC", which stands for "commander, cruisers destroyers Pacific"; it is also seen as "ComCruDesPac". Inventors are encouraged to anticipate the formation of acronyms by making new terms "YABA-compatible" ("yet another bloody acronym"), meaning the term's acronym can be pronounced and is not an offensive word: "When choosing a new name, be sure it is 'YABA-compatible'." Acronym use has been further popularized by text messaging on mobile phones with short message service (SMS), and instant messenger (IM). To fit messages into
8125-548: The United States are among the " alphabet agencies " (jokingly referred to as " alphabet soup ") created under the New Deal by Franklin D. Roosevelt (himself known as "FDR"). Business and industry also coin acronyms prolifically. The rapid advance of science and technology also drives the usage, as new inventions and concepts with multiword names create a demand for shorter, more pronounceable names. One representative example, from
8250-426: The United States. At the end of the final programme, he signed off with the words: That brings to an end my association with the news at 10.30. Thank you for watching and thank you for all your generous messages. Good night and goodbye. On 31 October 2007, ITV announced that, early in 2008, McDonald would come out of retirement to present the relaunched News at Ten together with Etchingham after being asked. It
8375-508: The West Midlands ). Producer Peter Harris left the show in the summer, to help produce fellow cult TV success The Muppet Show at ATV's London-orientated operation in Elstree . Chris Tarrant, Peter Tomlinson and Trevor East were the main presenters. Almost all these shows were produced by Sid Kilbey. The 2 April 1977 show was a landmark edition, as part of the programme was broadcast outside
8500-690: The Year by the Television and Radio Industries Club on four occasions in 1993, 1997, 1999, and 2009. McDonald was awarded the Royal Television Society (RTS) Gold Medal "for outstanding contribution to television news" in 1998, and in the following year, received the Richard Dimbleby Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). He was appointed Knight Bachelor in
8625-411: The acronym may use normal case rules, e.g. it would appear generally in lower case, but with an initial capital when starting a sentence or when in a title. Once knowledge of the words underlying such an acronym has faded from common recall, the acronym may be termed an anacronym . Examples of anacronyms are the words " scuba ", " radar ", and " laser ". The word "an acro nym" should not be confused with
8750-537: The acronym stands for is called its expansion . The meaning of an acronym includes both its expansion and the meaning of its expansion. The word acronym is formed from the Greek roots akro- , meaning 'height, summit, or tip', and -nym , 'name'. This neoclassical compound appears to have originated in German , with attestations for the German form Akronym appearing as early as 1921. Citations in English date to
8875-577: The adoption of acronyms was modern warfare, with its many highly technical terms. While there is no recorded use of military acronyms dating from the American Civil War (acronyms such as "ANV" for " Army of Northern Virginia " post-date the war itself), they became somewhat common in World War I , and by World War II they were widespread even in the slang of soldiers, who referred to themselves as G.I.s . The widespread, frequent use of acronyms across
9000-497: The apostrophe should be reserved for the possessive ("the TV's antenna"). In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the acronym is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish EE.UU. , for Estados Unidos ('United States'). This old convention is still sometimes followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as SS. for Saints , pp. for
9125-441: The budget for Tiswas , and Chris Tarrant had more of a say in the programme's production than ever before. The most remembered theme tune was heard for the first time, and the studio set was based around ATV cartoonist Chris Wroe's caricatures of the presenting team. This series can be considered as the definitive series, due to the material drawn from this era that usually gets an airing on documentaries and clips shows when Tiswas
9250-1159: The case. Sometimes function words are included to make a pronounceable acronym, such as CORE ( Congress of Racial Equality ). Sometimes the letters representing these words are written in lower case, such as in the cases of "TfL" (" Transport for London ") and LotR ( The Lord of the Rings ); this usually occurs when the acronym represents a multi-word proper noun. Numbers (both cardinal and ordinal ) in names are often represented by digits rather than initial letters, as in "4GL" (" fourth generation language ") or "G77" (" Group of 77 "). Large numbers may use metric prefixes , as with " Y2K " for "Year 2000". Exceptions using initials for numbers include " TLA " ("three-letter acronym/abbreviation") and "GoF" (" Gang of Four "). Abbreviations using numbers for other purposes include repetitions, such as " A2DP " ("Advanced Audio Distribution Profile"), " W3C " ("World Wide Web Consortium"), and T3 ( Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living ); pronunciation, such as " B2B " ("business to business"); and numeronyms , such as "i18n" ("internationalization"; "18" represents
9375-522: The changes, particularly the inclusion of a woman as presenter. However, he later retracted this view, having witnessed the progress Tiswas had made with James's contribution. One significant change almost never happened. ATV management were displeased with the visual slapstick element - the hurling of custard pies and water. They believed this was setting a bad example to the young viewers. Newly drafted producer/director Glyn Edwards managed to retain this vital, messy element by drawing on his experience as
9500-413: The compact discs). In some instances, however, an apostrophe may increase clarity: for example, if the final letter of an abbreviation is "S", as in "SOS's" (although abbreviations ending with S can also take "-es", e.g. "SOSes"), or when pluralizing an abbreviation that has periods. A particularly rich source of options arises when the plural of an acronym would normally be indicated in a word other than
9625-557: The contrived acronym "P.R.E.T.T.Y.B.L.U.E.B.A.T.C.H." The use of Latin and Neo-Latin terms in vernaculars has been pan-European and pre-dates modern English. Some examples of acronyms in this class are: The earliest example of a word derived from an acronym listed by the OED is "abjud" (now " abjad "), formed from the original first four letters of the Arabic alphabet in the late eighteenth century. Some acrostics pre-date this, however, such as
9750-438: The dictionary entries and style guide recommendations regarding the term acronym through the twentieth century did not explicitly acknowledge or support the expansive sense. The Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage from 1994 is one of the earliest publications to advocate for the expansive sense, and all the major dictionary editions that include a sense of acronym equating it with initialism were first published in
9875-525: The early 1970s). The presenting team was doubled to four presenters, and these were usually culled from ATV's presentation department. Chris Tarrant and John Asher retained their roles as the main presenters, although John would leave during this series. From the ranks at ATV, other regular presenters were established, notably sports reporter Trevor East (later director of sport at Setanta Sports ) and announcer Peter Tomlinson (later to become managing director of Saga Radio West Midlands and High Sheriff of
10000-643: The exclusive sense for acronym and its earliest citation was from 1943. In early December 2010, Duke University researcher Stephen Goranson published a citation for acronym to the American Dialect Society e-mail discussion list which refers to PGN being pronounced "pee-gee-enn", antedating English language usage of the word to 1940. Linguist Ben Zimmer then mentioned this citation in his December 16, 2010 " On Language " column about acronyms in The New York Times Magazine . By 2011,
10125-763: The final word if spelled out in full. A classic example is "Member of Parliament", which in plural is "Members of Parliament". It is possible then to abbreviate this as "M's P", which was fairly common in mid-twentieth-century Australian news writing (or similar ), and used by former Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley . This usage is less common than forms with "s" at the end, such as "MPs", and may appear dated or pedantic. In common usage, therefore, "weapons of mass destruction" becomes "WMDs", "prisoners of war" becomes "POWs", and "runs batted in" becomes "RBIs". Abbreviations that come from single, rather than multiple, words – such as "TV" ("television") – are usually pluralized without apostrophes ("two TVs"); most writers feel that
10250-458: The first letter of acronyms, reserving all-caps styling for initialisms, writing the pronounced acronyms "Nato" and "Aids" in mixed case, but the initialisms "USA" and "FBI" in all caps. For example, this is the style used in The Guardian , and BBC News typically edits to this style (though its official style guide, dating from 2003, still recommends all-caps ). The logic of this style is that
10375-589: The franchise for the Midlands on condition of changes in management, regional output and branding. Thus, the first part of the series was produced by ATV and the second part by Central Television. The decision by TVS , the new ITV station in the south and south-east of England, to drop the Central-produced half of the last series in favour of its own Saturday morning programme No. 73 saw fans of Tiswas picket outside its studios in Southampton. The eighth series
10500-610: The improved use of English in both verbal and written communication in school, and assisted in the launch of its campaign Better English, Better Job to help school leavers improve their communication skills, job applications and practising job interviews with employers. McDonald was the presenter of the Classic Brit Awards in 2000. Five years later, he was appointed an honorary vice president of Vision Aid Overseas . McDonald has appeared in advertising campaigns for Vision Express and McVitie's . In June 2007, McDonald hosted
10625-435: The king". In English, abbreviations have previously been marked by a wide variety of punctuation . Obsolete forms include using an overbar or colon to show the ellipsis of letters following the initial part. The forward slash is still common in many dialects for some fixed expressions—such as in w/ for "with" or A/C for " air conditioning "—while only infrequently being used to abbreviate new terms. The apostrophe
10750-486: The label "usage problem". However, many English language dictionaries, such as the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary , Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary , Macmillan Dictionary , Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English , New Oxford American Dictionary , Webster's New World Dictionary , and Lexico from Oxford University Press do not acknowledge such a sense. Most of
10875-836: The language to changing circumstances. In this view, the modern practice is just the "proper" English of the current generation of speakers, much like the earlier abbreviation of corporation names on ticker tape or newspapers. Exact pronunciation of "word acronyms" (those pronounced as words rather than sounded out as individual letters) often vary by speaker population. These may be regional, occupational, or generational differences, or simply personal preference. For instance, there have been decades of online debate about how to pronounce GIF ( / ɡ ɪ f / or / dʒ ɪ f / ) and BIOS ( / ˈ b aɪ oʊ s / , / ˈ b aɪ oʊ z / , or / ˈ b aɪ ɒ s / ). Similarly, some letter-by-letter initialisms may become word acronyms over time, especially in combining forms: IP for Internet Protocol
11000-498: The middle of sentences for proper nouns; when following the AMA Manual of Style , this would instead be rendered as "the onset of congestive heart failure (CHF)". Trevor McDonald Sir Trevor Lawson McDonald (born George McDonald ; 16 August 1939) is a Trinidadian-British newsreader and journalist, best known for his career as a news presenter with Independent Television News (ITN). McDonald began his career working as
11125-463: The more general "x" can be used to replace an unspecified number of letters. Examples include "Crxn" for "crystallization" and the series familiar to physicians for history , diagnosis , and treatment ("hx", "dx", "tx"). Terms relating to a command structure may also sometimes use this formatting, for example gold, silver, and bronze levels of command in UK policing being referred to as Gx, Sx, and Bx. There
11250-472: The new ITV version of This Is Your Life , Simon Cowell being the programme's "victim". From June to August 2007, McDonald presented the satirical panel show News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald on ITV1. In August 2010, McDonald conducted a live on-stage interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Fairfield Halls in Croydon at an event entitled An Audience with Desmond Tutu . In 2014, McDonald presented
11375-870: The only existing copies of the programmes. Members of the production team and performers on the show would also record their appearances, leading to many episodes existing in private hands. In 2006, ITV began a search for many missing ITV programmes, including Tiswas , for their Raiders of the Lost Archive series broadcast in 2007. Their website reveals that only 22 episodes are known to officially exist in their entirety: episode 60 from 30 August 1975, four episodes from 1978, two episodes from 1979, two episodes from 1980, five episodes from 1981 and nine episodes from 1982. Incomplete segments from show 151 (broadcast on 10 December 1977), an episode from 1978 and two episodes from 1979 are also known to have survived. The prolific TiswasOnline fansite features an in-depth episode guide for
11500-721: The plural of 'pages', or mss. for manuscripts . The most common capitalization scheme seen with acronyms is all-uppercase ( all caps ). Small caps are sometimes used to make the run of capital letters seem less jarring to the reader. For example, the style of some American publications, including the Atlantic Monthly and USA Today , is to use small caps for acronyms longer than three letters; thus "U.S." and " FDR " in normal caps, but " nato " in small caps. The acronyms " AD " and " BC " are often smallcapped as well, as in: "From 4004 bc to ad 525 ". Where an acronym has linguistically taken on an identity as regular word,
11625-413: The presenter of a regional Saturday morning show in London called Saturday Scene , produced by LWT . Comedian Jim Davidson was intended to be a regular presenter but left after only a few editions, although he would return for cameo appearances. Peter Tomlinson was axed as a regular, which came as a surprise to him. Chris Tarrant was retained as the anchor presenter, and behind the scenes was annoyed with
11750-453: The programme back for a ninth series. Semi-regulars were dwarf actor David Rappaport who played characters such as 'Green Nigel' (in a pastiche of BBC programme Blue Peter ) and the Fonz -like 'Shades', Emil Wolk and puppeteer Trevor James with a giant parrot, presumably to fill the void left by Bob Carolgees. At the end of 1981, a restructure of ITV's broadcast franchises saw ATV win back
11875-668: The programme for the first time, establishing the show strongly in the nation's consciousness. London-based viewers tended to complain to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) about some of the edgier moments the show had. With an almost national audience, the show became inclusive of its increased viewership by making a bigger role out of specially invited viewer performances. Many of these were children who sang songs or performed dance routines. Chris Tarrant, now producer as well as presenter, found most of these contributions to be of little value, until he came across
12000-483: The pronunciation is reflected graphically by the capitalization scheme. However, it conflicts with conventional English usage of first-letter upper-casing as a marker of proper names in many cases; e.g. AIDS stands for acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome which is not a proper name, while Aids is in the style of one. Some style manuals also base the letters' case on their number. The New York Times , for example, keeps "NATO" in all capitals (while several guides in
12125-553: The public were confined and periodically doused in water (one spin-off of the series was the hit "The Bucket of Water Song", performed by the Four Bucketeers ). This became so popular that the 100th show (broadcast from the Hednesford Hills Raceway ) featured several hundred fans lining the racetrack whilst a fire-engine of the local brigade drove around the track and hosed them down with water. Another feature of Tiswas
12250-674: The publication of the 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary added the expansive sense to its entry for acronym and included the 1940 citation. As the Oxford English Dictionary structures the senses in order of chronological development, it now gives the "initialism" sense first. English language usage and style guides which have entries for acronym generally criticize the usage that refers to forms that are not pronounceable words. Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage says that acronym "denotes abbreviations formed from initial letters of other words and pronounced as
12375-470: The role from November 1999 to 2012. He also has intimate ties with King's College School in Wimbledon , a London day school, where he is now a governor . McDonald authored biographies of the cricketers Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd . He has worked as an editor of poetry anthologies, and his autobiography Fortunate Circumstances was published in 1993. Lenny Henry 's comic character Trevor McDoughnut
12500-598: The show when it became available for networked transmission. Over time most ITV regions chose to broadcast it, with Granada Television and Southern Television being among the last to pick up the show, in 1979, the year of the ITV technicians’ strike. Tyne Tees and Ulster eventually decided to take Tiswas for its final series in 1981. Most famously hosted by Chris Tarrant between 1974 and 1981, and later Sally James , it also featured Lenny Henry and occasionally Jim Davidson together with Bob Carolgees and his puppet , Spit
12625-470: The sides of railroad cars (e.g., "Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad" → "RF&P"); on the sides of barrels and crates; and on ticker tape and newspaper stock listings (e.g. American Telephone and Telegraph Company → AT&T). Some well-known commercial examples dating from the 1890s through 1920s include " Nabisco " ("National Biscuit Company"), " Esso " (from "S.O.", from " Standard Oil "), and " Sunoco " ("Sun Oil Company"). Another field for
12750-468: The term acronym only for forms pronounced as a word, and using initialism or abbreviation for those that are not. Some sources acknowledge the usage, but vary in whether they criticize or forbid it, allow it without comment, or explicitly advocate it. Some mainstream English dictionaries from across the English-speaking world affirm a sense of acronym which does not require being pronounced as
12875-502: The terms as mutually exclusive. Other guides outright deny any legitimacy to the usage: Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words says "Abbreviations that are not pronounced as words (IBM, ABC, NFL) are not acronyms; they are just abbreviations." Garner's Modern American Usage says "An acronym is made from the first letters or parts of a compound term. It's read or spoken as a single word, not letter by letter." The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage says "Unless pronounced as
13000-657: The three-part series The Secret Caribbean with Trevor McDonald . Two years later, McDonald travelled around the Mediterranean for the four-part series The Secret Mediterranean with Trevor McDonald . and along the route of the Mississippi River for the three-part series The Mighty Mississippi with Trevor McDonald in 2012 . In 2012, McDonald presented Queen Elizabeth II: Her Remarkable Life Through The Decades . In 2013, he visited death row inmates in Indiana and hosted
13125-552: The twenty-first century. The trend among dictionary editors appears to be towards including a sense defining acronym as initialism : the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added such a sense in its 11th edition in 2003, and both the Oxford English Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary added such senses in their 2011 editions. The 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary only included
13250-471: The two-part series Inside Death Row . McDonald travelled to New York City for the two-part series The Mafia with Trevor McDonald in early 2015. In late 2015, he presented Las Vegas with Trevor McDonald , a two-part series. In September 2016, McDonald presented a two-part series called Inside Scotland Yard With Trevor McDonald , and the two-part documentary Mafia Women with Trevor McDonald in February 2017 . In late 2017, McDonald presented
13375-536: The whole range of linguistic registers is relatively new in most languages, becoming increasingly evident since the mid-twentieth century. As literacy spread and technology produced a constant stream of new and complex terms, abbreviations became increasingly convenient. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) records the first printed use of the word initialism as occurring in 1899, but it did not come into general use until 1965, well after acronym had become common. In English, acronyms pronounced as words may be
13500-406: The whole series, detailing where an episode is known to exist, whether as a private home recording or in the official archive. ITV plc has confirmed to TiswasOnline that many more programme elements (other than those officially known to exist) have been kept, but as yet these have not been fully catalogued. This may include insert material such as animations and graphics or filmed clips. Furthermore,
13625-425: The word " an achro nym ", which is a type of misnomer. Words derived from an acronym by affixing are typically expressed in mixed case, so the root acronym is clear. For example, "pre-WWII politics", "post-NATO world", " DNase ". In some cases a derived acronym may also be expressed in mixed case. For example, " messenger RNA " and " transfer RNA " become "mRNA" and "tRNA". Some publications choose to capitalize only
13750-430: Was also ITN's first black reporter. McDonald was promoted in 1992 as the sole presenter of News at Ten and became a well-known face on British television screens. He was the presenter of the current affairs programme Tonight with Trevor McDonald and a series of documentaries for ITV . McDonald was knighted in 1999 for his services to journalism and was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Greater London in 2006. He
13875-489: Was also the first time Tyne Tees and Ulster started to screen the series. The new presenting team consisted of Midlands DJ Gordon Astley , former Darts frontman Den Hegarty and comic impressionist Fogwell Flax. Veteran Tiswas presenter Sally James stayed on and became the series' Music Editor, but decided to leave towards the series' end. This was likely to be a factor in Central Television 's decision not to bring
14000-416: Was announced on 30 October 2008 that McDonald would step down from News at Ten once the 2008 United States presidential election was over, to be replaced by Mark Austin . His last bulletin was on 20 November 2008. It was reported at the time that he would continue to present links for Tonight . McDonald has presented a series of documentaries for ITV. In 2009, McDonald travelled to the Caribbean for
14125-469: Was broadcast on TVS upon the conclusion of No. 73 ' s first series. During its ATV days the chairman of the station, Lew Grade , was said to have taken a personal dislike to the show but was persuaded to let it continue, even arguing in its defence to criticism from the IBA. It was believed that the new management at Central frowned upon the anarchy of Tiswas (and the common popularity of another production,
14250-511: Was done with a full space between every full word (e.g. A. D. , i. e. , and e. g. for " Anno Domini ", " id est ", and " exempli gratia "). This even included punctuation after both Roman and Arabic numerals to indicate their use in place of the full names of each number (e.g. LII. or 52. in place of "fifty-two" and "1/4." or "1./4." to indicate "one-fourth"). Both conventions have fallen out of common use in all dialects of English, except in places where an Arabic decimal includes
14375-521: Was employed by the BBC World Service as a producer at Bush House , but still broadcast to the Caribbean. Finding he was slow-moving at progressing and eager to advance his career, in 1973, he was employed by Independent Television News (ITN) editor Nigel Ryan to work at the news organisation as a general reporter and was also ITN's first black reporter. McDonald later became a sports correspondent from 1978 to 1980, reporting on events such as
14500-682: Was its spoof gardening segment Compost Corner , which Chris Tarrant later revealed was a ruse to get an audience callback in the style of Crackerjack . This feature regularly featured Lenny Henry – complete with khaki shorts; Hawaiian shirt; and ginger fake beard – performing an impersonation of David Bellamy , with gardening-based puns and jokes. Lenny Henry also performed a regular slot of Newsflashes as Trevor McDoughnut – an impersonation of ITN newsreader Trevor McDonald – in which he performed news-based puns and jokes, punctuated by buckets of water being thrown at him. Henry also regularly performed an impersonation of Tommy Cooper , in which he either told
14625-449: Was little to no naming , conscious attention, or systematic analysis until relatively recent times. Like retronymy, it became much more common in the twentieth century than it had formerly been. Ancient examples of acronymy (before the term "acronym" was invented) include the following: During the mid- to late nineteenth century, acronyms became a trend among American and European businessmen: abbreviating corporation names, such as on
14750-443: Was not such a success, running for just one series, and is today chiefly remembered for the naked 'Balloon Dance' performed by The Greatest Show on Legs , including comedian Malcolm Hardee . The theme tune was recorded by Roy Wood and was released as a single Saturday Stayback was a short-lived (January–February 1983) late night comedy show based in a pub. Although intended as some sort of sequel to O.T.T. , this differed quite
14875-409: Was revived in 2010 with presenter Julie Etchingham . McDonald presented his last ITV News bulletin on 15 December 2005. He stepped down from his role as anchor after more than 30 years at ITN , but said he had no plans to retire completely from television. McDonald told his ITN colleagues that he wanted a low-key departure after having observed the departures of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather in
15000-460: Was so pleased with his contribution that he decided to make a regular fixture out of Bob. Lenny Henry made sporadic appearances throughout this series, but was not established as a regular. Child performer Paul Hardin increased his visits to the studios, and could well be considered as a series 5 team member, likewise Sylveste McCoy (who added an "r" to his first name later in his career) who performed surreal comic interludes. Many ITV regions took
15125-617: Was so well-received that a second series was commissioned. Billed in TV Times as "Today Is Saturday or the Tis-was Show", the title sequence features both "Today Is Saturday" and the original "Tiswas" chunky letters logo, shown over a background very similar to that of The Golden Shot . The sequence featured clips from various films and Disney cartoons, backed by a funky jazz number known as "Atomic Butterfly" (which also seems to have been used for Sports Arena , an HTV Wales sports programme in
15250-611: Was standard practice at the time). Accordingly, they suffered the same fate as a number of 1970s children's series, in that they were thought to have no further commercial use (the idea of home video entertainment was still in its infancy), and therefore many master tapes were wiped for re-use. As a result, very few programmes officially exist in their entirety. Those that were kept were often stored in poor conditions, which led to severe picture deterioration, so they are no longer of broadcast quality . However, some did survive; many viewers made their own recordings and in many cases these are
15375-597: Was the presenter of the National Television Awards from 1996 to 2008, and hosted the television series Undercover Customs , which created reconstructions of major HM Customs and Excise investigations in the United Kingdom. On 21 April 2006, McDonald presented an episode of the BBC One satirical quiz Have I Got News for You . McDonald was formerly chancellor of London South Bank University , serving in
15500-511: Was the walking partner in the second episode of Perfect Pub Walks with Bill Bailey . In June 2024, The Guardian reported that McDonald had been featured in an advertisement to promote the planned UK government sale of shares in NatWest to the public (which had been announced in the March budget ). Because one of McDonald's conditions was that he did not want to directly tell people to buy shares,
15625-407: Was the weekday home for the company's regional news magazine, ATV Today . The show was a stitch-together of competitions, film clips and pop promos, just about held together by sketches and links from the cast. The show also regularly featured spoofs of BBC children's programming. A feature of Tiswas was "The Cage" wherein initially the child audience, later their parents and, finally, members of
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