diff --git a/Tools/autotest/run_in_terminal_window.sh b/Tools/autotest/run_in_terminal_window.sh
index 1d7a008aed..25816ed6f1 100755
--- a/Tools/autotest/run_in_terminal_window.sh
+++ b/Tools/autotest/run_in_terminal_window.sh
@@ -6,8 +6,25 @@
 name="$1"
 shift
 echo "RiTW: Starting $name : $*"
-# default to xterm as it has the most consistent options and can start minimised
-if [ -n "$DISPLAY" -a -n "$(which osascript)" ]; then
+
+if [ -n "$SITL_RITW_TERMINAL" ]; then
+  # create a small shell script containing the command to run; this
+  # avoids problems where "screen" expects arguments in
+  # argv[1],argv[2],argv[3] where gnome-terminal expects the command
+  # to run be in argv[n+1] where argv[n] is "-e"
+  # this should work with:
+  # export SITL_RITW_TERMINAL="screen -D -m"
+  # export SITL_RITW_TERMINAL="gnome-terminal -e"
+  # export SITL_RITW_TERMINAL="konsole -e"
+
+  test -z "$TMPDIR" && TMPDIR="/tmp/"
+  FILENAME="ritw-`date '+%Y%m%d%H%M%S'`"
+  FILEPATH="$TMPDIR/$FILENAME"
+  echo "#!/bin/sh" >"$FILEPATH"
+  echo "$*" >>"$FILEPATH"
+  chmod +x "$FILEPATH"
+  $SITL_RITW_TERMINAL "$FILEPATH" &
+elif [ -n "$DISPLAY" -a -n "$(which osascript)" ]; then
   osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script "'"$* "'"'
 elif [ -n "$DISPLAY" -a -n "$(which xterm)" ]; then
   xterm -iconic -xrm 'XTerm*selectToClipboard: true' -xrm 'XTerm*initialFont: 6' -n "$name" -name "$name" -T "$name" -hold -e $* &