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Sir Malcolm Walker, retailer

Sir Malcolm Walker, retailer, shares the eight discs, book and luxury item he would want with him if cast away on a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Sir Malcolm Walker is the chairman and co-founder of the frozen food supermarket chain Iceland.

He was brought up in Grange Moor, West Yorkshire. He was just 14 when his father died, and he helped his mother run a smallholding, driving a tractor and ploughing fields. His business instinct kicked in during his teenage years, when he promoted Saturday night dances by booking bands into local church halls.

After receiving rejections from Marks & Spencer and Littlewoods, he became a trainee manager at Woolworths, and recalls that he started at the very bottom, sweeping the floors for many months before gradually winning promotions and moving round the country.

In 1970, he and Peter Hinchcliffe, a colleague from Woolworths, opened a shop in Oswestry, selling loose frozen food from chest freezers. The business soon began to take off, Malcolm and Peter were both fired by Woolworths, and Malcolm went on to build a company which now has more than 1000 stores in the UK and Ireland. Along the way, boardroom battles led to his departure in the early 2000s, but he later returned and Iceland is now back in family ownership.

Alongside his business pursuits, Malcolm has been a fundraiser for dementia charities, after his wife was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. She died in 2021 after more than 50 years of marriage.

He was knighted in 2017, has three children, one of whom also works in the family business, and he married for the second time in August last year.

DISC ONE: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26: II. Adagio, composed by Max Bruch, performed by Itzhak Perlman (violin) and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
DISC TWO: Goodbye by Josef Locke
DISC THREE: Only You by The Platters
DISC FOUR: Silence is Golden by The Tremeloes
DISC FIVE: Memory composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed by Elaine Paige
DISC SIX: All I Ask of You composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and performed by Steve Barton and Sarah Brightman
DISC SEVEN: La boh猫me, SC 67 / Act I composed by Giacomo Puccini and performed by Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) and Mirella Freni (soprano) with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DISC EIGHT: Quando me鈥檔 vo (鈥淢usetta鈥檚 Waltz鈥) from La Boh猫me composed by Giacomo Puccini and performed by Natalie Walker

BOOK CHOICE: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
LUXURY ITEM: A cast iron cooking pot
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Quando me鈥檔 vo (鈥淢usetta鈥檚 Waltz鈥) from La Boh猫me composed by Giacomo Puccini and performed by Natalie Walker

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Available now

37 minutes

Last on

Fri 13 Jan 2023 09:00

Music Played

  • Max Bruch

    Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26: II. Adagio

    Performer: Itzhak Perlman. Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
    • Mendelssohn & Bruch: Violin Concertos.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 5.
  • Josef Locke

    Goodbye

    • The Best of Josef Locke.
    • Midget Music.
    • 3.
  • The Platters

    Only You

    • 8 Best of The Platters.
    • Madacy Special Products.
    • 5.
  • The Tremeloes

    Silence Is Golden

    • Silence Is Golden - The Very Best of The Tremeloes.
    • Castle Communications.
    • 3.
  • Elaine Paige

    Memory

    • Cats.
    • Polydor Records.
    • 7.
  • Cliff Richard & Sarah Brightman

    All I Ask Of You

    • Highlights From The Phantom Of The Opera.
    • Polydor Records.
    • 8.
  • Giacomo Puccini

    La boh猫me, SC 67 / Act I

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan. Singer: Luciano Pavarotti. Singer: Mirella Freni.
    • La Boh猫me.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd..
    • 4.
  • Natalie Walker

    Quando me'n vo ("Musetta's Waltz")

Broadcasts

  • Sun 8 Jan 2023 11:15
  • Fri 13 Jan 2023 09:00

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