Sue Lawley's guest this week is James Dyson. Today he's one of the richest men in Britain, but he began with an idea, a piece of cardboard and some sticky-backed plastic. Five years and more than 5,000 prototypes later, he was confident that he had invented a new type of vacuum cleaner. But that was to prove only the beginning of a long, drawn-out battle to get it licensed.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Slowdown by Wax On Wax Off