We present accurate integrated-light photometry in Johnson/Cousins V, R and I for a sample of 28 globular clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. The majority of the clusters in our sample have reliable age and metallicity estimates available in the literature. The sample encompasses ages between 50Myr and 7Gyr, and metallicities ([Fe/H]) between 1.5 and 0.0dex. The sample is dominated by clusters of ages between roughly 0.5 and 2Gyr, an age range during which the bolometric luminosity of simple stellar populations is dominated by evolved red giant branch stars and thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars whose theoretical colours are rather uncertain. The VRI colours presented in this paper have been used to calibrate stellar population synthesis model predictions.