The Wire

Steve Vizard once had Australia in the palm of his hand – comedian, enormously popular television host , the charming man with the irrepressible smile who used much of his his wealth for charitable purposes. Then it all came spectacularly undone. One of his many directorships was on the board of Telstra and it turned out that he had used his position to do some illegal share trading – It was a grubby and not even very lucrative act that led to him being public shamed and banned from corporate life for ten years. Journalist Leonie Wood spent years following Vizard’s case in and out of court and her book “Funny Business” tries to answer the question of why someone who had so much would risk it for so little.