Week Ending: Phil Cusack’s hidden depths; Perls’ mountain mishap; Breaking Bad confession
MARKETING company boss Mike Perls nearly came a cropper on the slopes this week as he skied with pals including corporate financier Richard Hughes and retired England rugby players Austin Healey, Martin Corrie and Ben Kay.
After what he freely admits was an over-ambitious move while skiing off-piste, the founder of MC2 took a big fall at pace, injuring his shoulder.
He was strapped up and towed off the slope behind a snow ski to safety.
Battered and bruised, but undeterred despite his narrow escape, Perls was soon back on the piste though, and well enough to join Rothschilds on its annual jaunt to Val Thorens.
::
PHIL Cusack, the genial president of Greater Manchester Chamber and regional boss of property group AECOM, has a hidden talent – he’s a avid quizzer.
As well as running a pub quiz team on a Thursday night in Worsley he’s also been a TV quiz show star.
Chatting on Wednesday night he revealed he had won the the first series of a short-lived general knowledge/Soduku quiz show on BBC, hosted by Eamonn Holmes.
“It was a really hard challenge, I have to say. Your brain is going two ways, but I got through it and won,” he modestly relates.
The next time Week Ending is asked to field a corporate quiz team, Mr Cusack can expect a call.
::
THERE was a startling moment of honesty at Deloitte’s TMT (technology, media and telecoms) Predictions event this week.
BBC North controller Mark Harrison put his head down and said: “I have a confession.”
What could it be? The BBC’s move to Salford was an awful mistake after all? Another series of Citizen Khan has been commissioned? Surely not.
“I haven’t seen Breaking Bad.”
In TV circles this is a big admission. The US drama about a teacher who becomes a producer of the drug crystal meth is universally acclaimed. Everyone talk about it. All the time.
Harrison was making the point that TV viewing figures don’t tell the whole story. There’s another, less tangible, measure of success he called “buzz”.
“I haven’t seen Breaking Bad but I know all about it and how important it is, and that’s because of buzz.”
