The man with the golden Magnum
JAMES Bond legend Sir Roger Moore invented the Magnum ice cream, according to a family friend.
The sweet-toothed actor suggested that Wall’s should create a chocolatecovered ice cream on a stick during an interview in the 1960s.
He later received a call from the company’s boss who sent him a specially-made early version of the product, according to pal Chrissy Iley.
Wall’s, however, did not launch the Magnum – a stick of vanilla ice cream coated in a sheet of milk chocolate – until 1989.
The iconic treats are now the world’s top-selling ice cream, with nearly £2billion in global sales in 2015.
Moore, who died last month aged 89, starred in seven Bond films including The Man with the Golden Gun.
But the cool hero’s secret link to ice cream was revealed by celebrity journalist Ms Iley who said: “One thing Roger is not universally known for is the fact he virtually invented the Magnum ice cream. I am sure he would want me to correct that now.”
She says he told her: “In the Sixties I was doing an interview for some magazine or other and I was asked, ‘If you could have one wish to meet one person and ask them a question, what would it be?’
“I said I would like to meet Mr Wall’s and ask why they don’t have a choc ice with vanilla inside – that I had as a child – and put it on a stick?
“I didn’t know at the time but other people were being asked the same question and they wanted to meet Gandhi or Jesus. But I got a call from Mr Wall’s, who sent me a cake with plain chocolate on the outside and vanilla ice cream on the inside.”
Ms Iley says Moore, a goodwill ambassador for Unicef who was knighted for his humanitarian work, went on to tell her: “I love Magnums. I can make them last half an hour.”
In an article for the Sunday Times, she wrote that despite his diabetes, he would allow himself a couple of Magnum Black Espressos every week.
“Low in sugar but the best thing in the world. Slides down so easy,” he told her.