Hello, I'm Kresti Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2002, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My costaway this week is a businessman, energetic, tough and not frightened of a scrap, his commercial

acumen has been put to use in both the private and public sectors.

He earned his knighthood for services to the Health Service and was until last year, Chairman of the BBC.

His childhood was character building. His parents lived abroad and often didn't see their son at boarding school in England from one year to the next.

After national service and Oxford he became, among other things, a member of the GLC.

He made a million pounds in a printing firm and famously a few more millions as chairman of

London weekend television.

I'm naturally bossy, he confesses, but I don't bear grudges and I always apologize.

Now the new chairman of BT he is Sir Christopher Bland. I suppose if you're bossy Christopher it's best to be the boss and you've been the boss of an awful lot of things over the years haven't you?

Yes.

I look, I mean looking at the list, it is amazing.

The range is huge from singer sewing machines to steam locomotives to televisions.

Well, my father worked 40 years for Shell in one job so

when after three years of my first job I moved he thought this was signs of

dangerous instability when I moved a second time after another three years he

thought it was all up. But you've always been the boss really looking at it it seems

to me and I worked it out that from the age of 33 when you were the

managing director of a company you've been at the top either MD or chairman ever

since so if you've spent 40 years working nearly 30 years of it you've been at the top.

Yes. The great thing about being chairman, there are two really good things about it.

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