Interviewing Britain's most famous face
Last week I interviewed one of the most famous faces in the UK. He has been on your television screens regularly recently, on an almost hourly basis.
His face is now synonymous with 2009, yet you will not find him in any gossip columns or showbiz magazines.
The man I interviewed is David McCusker. David is the man in the current Department of Health 'Catch it. Bin it. Kill it!' swine flu commercial.
He's the bloke in the lift with the rather natty blues sports jacket and the phenomenal sneeze.
The story behind this commercial is fascinating.
Like me, I suspect you thought it was a hastily-cobbled-together affair; filmed as news we had a potential pandemic on our hands came to light.
You can almost imagine various senior health officials panicking as they worked against the clock to get something on the telly to remind folk of the importance of washing their hands. Not so.
It transpires the Department of Health simply found in their archive a
flu-awareness commercial made last year. A new voice-over and a few graphics at the end were added and, voila!, one swine flu commercial.
Talking to David, it became clear making the commercial was far from simple.
He explained he was rigged up with a clever piece of kit that simulated a sneeze, while providing the all-important spray of mucus that went everywhere and started the passing on of his germs.
This special effect was administered by the same effects team which last worked on the recent James Bond movie Quantum of Solace!
It took 30 takes until the director got a sneeze deemed sufficiently realistic and suitably unpleasant.
Other trivia associated with the commercial? I can tell you David kept the blue jacket he wore in the ad and he plans to auction it for charity.
Also, his new-found fame has proved a talking point with members of the opposite sex, although once he explains why his face is familiar to them, they seem a little bit reluctant to take things further!
David McCusker: the face of swine flu in 2009. In a world full of celebrity buffoons, it was refreshing to meet a face from the telly who is a thoroughly decent and modest chap with a quirky story to tell.
Definitely qualities not to be sneezed at.
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Weather for Chichester
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
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