Trevor MacDonald wins prestigious television award

ITV journalist Trevor MacDonald was yesterday awarded the coveted Palme d'Oh at the Montreal Television Festival for his ground-breaking programme The Final Countdown.

MacTrousers was presented with the award for Best Political Satire after a live interview with Tony Blair over the Iraq war. The award will come as a surprise to most, not least MacDonaghue himself, who is usually more associated with the field of factual programming and current affairs.

In a statement after the ceremony Jean-Pierre Bureaucrat, the chairman of the Montreal Festival committee said: "This award is for Trebor's magnificent parody of the modern current affairs programme. To portray the leader of a nation being questioned on the subject of war by an audience consisting entirely of overwrought female anti-war protestors was a stroke of genius. Despite the poor Blair impersonator, it pinpointed with vicious accuracy the way that the media seems to be smothering reasoned debate on the Iraq issue. A landmark achievement."

Confronted afterwards by members of the British press who tried to explain that the interview was entirely genuine, Bureaucrat remarked: "You guys and your crazy satire! Genuine? Like hell! You might as well bend the prime minister over a table and give him one on primetime!"

A spokeswoman for Granada Television, the production company that made the programme, was gracious when we telephoned with the news: "You're taking the pi*ss, right?" she commented.

The award was accepted in MacDibble's absence by a bemused Martin Bashir, himself a nominee at the Festival in the Best Celebrity Stitch-up category.