- "Roboteers, stand by. 3... 2... 1... activate!"
- — McDonald's most repeated phrases
Stuart McDonald was a British television director, specialising in game shows, who worked on the original series of Robot Wars as the director and as the famous Robot Wars Announcer.
Robot Wars[]
- "My name's Stuart McDonald, the Robot Wars director. From our vehicle here, we can see all the shots from the arena, we can watch all the battles. We control the battles, too. We start them, we stop them, and I'm also the voice of the robots. Roboteers, stand by!"
- — Stuart McDonald explains his roles and responsibilities in Robot Wars Revealed, Episode 15
During the filming of the original series, McDonald had several primary roles as director, two of which were prominently featured in the main show as well as the behind-the-scenes episode The Making of Robot Wars. Firstly, he was responsible for issuing instructions to cameramen and other personnel to ensure that they could obtain the ideal footage to use for the finished episodes. Secondly, he performed various announcements in the arena advising on health and safety procedures, the start of battles as well as building up the audience's anticipation for competitions and other televised segments.
- "Confirmation please, that the arena is clear and safe for combat... the arena is clear. Shots of the roboteers please on "2"... stand by! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Robot Wars!"
- — Various instructions and announcements made by Stuart McDonald during The Making of Robot Wars
In Episode 15 of Robot Wars Revealed, McDonald featured onscreen during a segment focusing on behind-the-scenes elements of the show. His roles as director and announcer were covered alongside his cooperation with visual mixer Ian Trill, which was essential in allowing the pair to select the most relevant and effective camera shots for each televised event. Multiple cameras were used to film the arena from different angles, allowing several shots of certain moments to be taken and shown through replays.
It was the aforementioned announcements (spoken in a deep voice) which proved to be McDonald's best-known contributions. Among those included introductions for the hosts - initially humorous in tone, but later replaced with a standard "Master of Mayhem" announcement - as well as competitor robots as they entered the arena. During the first four series, McDonald's announcements usually revolved around a pun, giving the hilarious assumption that the presenters did or had done what he described. These were especially noticeable for Craig Charles, with his introductions often following themes related to the military or special services. Each would end in a punchline, usually suggesting that Charles misunderstood or misrepresented various military terms as everyday objects or tasks.
In some instances, pop culture references would also frame Charles' introductions; the intro for Series 2, Heat K alludes to his role as Dave Lister in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf:
- "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the man who oils Kryten's bearings - Craig Charles!"
- — Stuart McDonald's intro for Series 2, Heat K
McDonald was also responsible for calling the start and end of battles with the famous "Roboteers, stand by", "3-2-1 Activate" and "Cease" announcements; these phrases would also appear in merchandise as well as international versions and the rebooted series. An additional announcement, "Stop and deactivate robots", was also made in Series 1 and some earlier episodes of Series 2.
McDonald's announcements were also heard in selected international versions such as Dutch Robot Wars and German Robot Wars, though these were dubbed over with alternative announcements for the US versions Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors and Nickelodeon Robot Wars respectively by Stefan Frank. However, his Series 5-7 and Extreme announcements continued to be used during filming and were still audible in interviews held for the latter series[1]. His announcement Roboteers, stand by was erroneously used before the battle between Manta and Tiger Cat in the Civil War, and Cease was used in some episodes of Extreme Warriors: Season 2 and in the International Tag Team.
McDonald would assume the role of director throughout the majority of the original televised series. He was also credited with voiceovers for the 2001 Live Event tour, directed by Hugh Wooldridge[2]. On occasions, McDonald would share his directorial roles with Paul Kirrage (Series 3) and Derek Wheeler (Extreme Warriors Season 2, Nickelodeon Robot Wars, Series 6, German Robot Wars and Extreme Series 2). Kirrage and Wheeler assumed the sole onscreen credits for 'Director' in each of their respective series; nevertheless, the souvenir programme for Extreme 2 lists McDonald as a co-director alongside Wheeler[3].
McDonald had no involvement with the rebooted series, his position as director being filled by Nikki Parsons (Series 8), Tim van Someren (Series 9) and Stephen Stewart (Series 10) respectively. The new voice of the 'Robot Wars announcer' took the form of an electronically filtered voice from an uncredited male artist.
Outside Robot Wars[]
In tandem with his Robot Wars roles, Stuart McDonald also directed the 2002 and 2003 series of sister show Techno Games, along with providing episode introductions for the former.
Throughout his career, McDonald was considered one of the foremost television broadcasters in Britain, especially in the field of 3D broadcasting, of which he was a pioneer. He had worked on many successful TV shows including Top of the Pops, Gladiators, Are you Smarter than a Ten Year Old?, Parkinson, Pointless, The Chase and The Apprentice: You're Fired, as well as the annual BBC Children in Need. Along the way, he met the likes of George Michael and Sir Paul McCartney and worked for the BBC, ITV, Sky and Fox, as well as earning membership in BAFTA and Directors UK.
Stuart was involved in a car crash and sadly passed away in the afternoon on 12 April 2021[4].
Trivia[]
- McDonald sometimes had trouble pronouncing the names of robots, notably Dantomkia and Tsunami, the former he pronounced many different ways.
- McDonald also directed the hit game show Gladiators, of which Robot Wars is considered to be the robot equivalent. The Gladiators from the show were the inspiration behind the House Robots.
- Stuart McDonald also directed the show Top of the Pops, which followed Robot Wars in its traditional Friday night slot.