[2] Donaldson stressed, in interviews, the importance in his view of "understanding and being interested in the material in front of you in order to involve the listener".
Donaldson had a distinctive form of Received Pronunciation "BBC accent" - one of the few left on British radio in the 21st century - and his delivery incorporated idiosyncratic pauses in the middle of sentences.
In the 1980s his voice was used on the pre-recorded warning that a nuclear attack had been launched on the British Isles during the Cold War, which would have been transmitted on television and radio from a studio in Broadcasting House in such an eventuality.
In 2000 he played the resentful and sarcastic butler Theremin, homicidal manservant to the celebrated occult investigator Lord Zimbabwe, in the BBC Radio 4 comedy Ectoplasm, and he also featured in a series of short Radio 4 programmes on the end of World War II reading news reports of the time.
[3] Donaldson is survived by his wife Aileen, whom he married in 1973, and their daughter, Emma, sons, Jamie and Bin, and grandson, Jack.
[3] On his death BBC newsreader Corrie Corfield wrote: "He was a huge part of my life for over 27 years - a good friend, a superb broadcaster, a mentor, an ally, a rock, and the best boss I've ever had."