Sir Gulam Noon
Sue Lawley's castaway is businessman Sir Gulam Noon.
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is a businessman who brought authentic Indian foods to our supermarkets - Sir Gulam Noon. An instinctive businessman, he was brought up in a complex family situation with a step-brother and sister who were also his half-siblings and a cousin who assumed a paternal role after his own father died. They were not well off, but they had managed until their father's death when Gulam was seven. After that, it was a struggle and as a young teenager Gulam would spend the evenings working in his family's two sweetshops in Bombay. He had an entrepreneurial eye and saw business opportunities to improve and expand.
After a brief holiday in Engand he announced to his family that he wanted to expand into this country too. He built a confectionary business here and, seeing the huge public appetite for Indian food in restaurants, started manufacturing it for the supermarket shelves. After a disastrous fire at his factory in 1994, he built up his business again and now makes more than a quarter of a million curries a day. His biggest seller, not surprisingly, is chicken tikka masala. Gulam Noon was given an MBE for services to the food industry in 1994, and in 2002 was knighted.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Nat Bhairav by Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brijbushan Kabra
Book: Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Luxury: Videos of cricket matches
Last on
Music Played
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Castaway's Favourite
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Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brijbushan Kabra
Nat Bhairav
- Call Of The Valley.
- EMI.
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Dean Martin
Gentle On My Mind
- Dean Martin On Reprise.
- EMI.
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Brian Silas
Ae Meri Zaohra Jubin
- Beyond Space: Nostalgic Film Tunes.
- T Series India.
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Frank Sinatra
Strangers in the Night
- A Fine Romance: the Love Songs of Frank Sinatra.
- Reprise.
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Hariprasad Chaurasia & Zakir Hussain
Raga: Bageswari-Gat in Teental
- The Musical Splendour of India.
- Oriental Records.
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Franz Schubert
Ave Maria (Ellens Gesang III), D839
Soloist: Luciano Pavarotti
- Ave Maria: A Sacred Christmas.
- Decca.
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Dolly Parton
9 to 5
- Favourites.
- Pickwick.
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Tina Turner
Private Dancer
- Private Dancer.
- Capitol.
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Book Choice
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Long Walk To Freedom - Nelson Mandela
Luxury Choice
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Videos of cricket matches
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Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Sue Lawley |
| Interviewed Guest | Sir Gulam Noon |
Broadcasts
- Sun 7 Mar 2004 11:15BBC Radio 4
- Fri 12 Mar 2004 09:00BBC Radio 4
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