Desert Island Discs Revisited

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Factual: Life Stories

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Desert Island Discs Revisited: Coding: Martha Lane Fox

Martha Lane Fox

Coding

Desert Island Discs

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Desert Island Discs Revisited, Coding, Martha Lane Fox

From Judy Garland to Verdi, the entrepreneur shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

From Judy Garland to Verdi. Entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From January 2004.

From Judy Garland to Verdi. 

Dot-com millionaire and businesswoman Martha Lane Fox shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. 

Martha says that as a child she was confident and bossy - tormenting her younger brother and, in games of teachers and pupils, always marking him lower than her line of teddy bears. Her drive and ambition were recognised at school and college - her brother claims her nickname was 'Fast Lane Foxy'. 

After studying modern and classical history at Oxford University she became a management consultant at a small company and met Brent Hoberman - who had the idea for lastminute.com. Initially, Lane Fox rubbished the idea, but eventually Brent convinced her and she joined him, appropriately enough, at the last minute. The pair launched lastminute.com in 1998 - it started out as an online bucket shop - selling the holidays that small travel agents couldn't get rid of - and branched out into entertainment and gifts. 

On March 14th, 2000, days before the markets peaked, lastminute.com was floated on the stock exchange - and over the following weeks prices collapsed. Martha Lane Fox became the face, the figurehead and eventually the fall-girl for the dot-com bubble. In November 2003, after lastminute.com announced a profit for the first time, Lane Fox announced she was resigning as managing director.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2004.

Desert Island Discs Revisited: Coding

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Kirsty Young introduces gems from the Desert Island Discs archive

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