One minute interview – Lester Mak
Where did you spend your last holiday and what was great/bad about it?
I’ve just come back from skiing in Bardonecchia in Italy (about 60 miles from Turin in the Alps). Having never skied before, I impressed myself over the course of the week by being able to ski comfortably at the end down the whole mountain without falling over, hitting a tree or taking out a bunch of five year olds in those trains of moving chicanes on the slopes. But it was slightly depressing when you see them skipping around off-piste on the snow and you feel like a heavy klutz.
What’s your favourite meal?
My father is a chef, so as a kid I was taught to appreciate good food – which also means being spoilt by having lots of it as well, of course! But, ironically, my favourite meal is a good simple fry up for brunch on a weekend morning. I’ll never miss that!
What was the last book you read? Struggle or pleasure?
After Dark by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is such a fantastic author and he has a brilliant imagination, albeit somewhat very twisted for some!
When was the last time you went to the cinema and what did you see?
I went to see Lust, Caution by Ang Lee a couple of weeks ago. I’m an Asian film fanatic in general and love watching films from the region. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who plays the male lead is one of the best actors in the world in my opinion and Tang Wei made one of the best debut performances I’ve ever seen as the female lead. And of course, Ang Lee is simply a directorial master.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Anywhere I can take a good landscape photo: the mountains, the desert, the sea, cityscapes. Which pretty much means anywhere.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
Not necessarily an "achievement" as such but certainly a claim to fame. I appeared on Countdown in February 1999 and won one of the first Countdown teapots. But in the process, I set a new record by winning a letters round with a three letter word (‘RUN’). The record still stands today as far as I know.
What was your first job?
My first job was Director of a Summer Camp in Shenzhen, China, which was set up to teach schoolchildren English over the course of six weeks. It was tremendous fun with the kids, although it was also one of the hardest jobs I’ve done as I had to deal with very difficult people within the school administration. Yes, harder to deal with than some of Ofcom’s stakeholders!
What was the last music album you bought?
I bought a few swing jazz albums. I’m into swing dance and moonlight as an organiser of free swing dance events in London in my spare time so I need to build up a collection of music. I’m currently involved in planning a number of outdoor events on the South Bank over the summer.
Cats or dogs?
Well, Garfield is my favourite cartoon character. But I don’t have pets at home.
What is your favourite word?
Jazz and zyzygy, mainly because they have strange letters. But they are of absolutely no use for Countdown or Scrabble.
Who is your hero and why?
I don’t like to name drop, so I won’t mention his name, but you probably could guess who he is. A family friend, I remember once sitting in his tiny workshop as a small kid and being impressed with what he did and what were then his relatively small achievements. Starting from a very humble background, over the course of a couple of decades, he’s become one of the world’s most famous shoe designers, and yet he is still the same humble "uncle" I knew as a kid. He is still a big inspiration to me.
What is your pet hate?
People who drive Porsches, particularly those who drive them on a dual carriageway more slowly than caravans…
Tell us a joke
I’m not good at my own jokes, so I’ll borrow one from Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame. This was one of his headlines in a game called "Weird Newscasters":
"Today, legendary human cannonball, the great Zambonee, who was famous for bringing his pet donkey to each of his performances, escaped tragedy today when, just as he was about to be launched, his pet donkey walked in front of the cannon. It took paramedics three hours to remove Zambonee’s head from his ass. Both are resting comfortably."
