GLib to the rescue. If you put the readkey in a thread, you can control the mainloop thru a shared variable. 's' makes it stop, 'g' makes it go, 'q' makes it exit. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Glib;
use Term::ReadKey;
use threads;
use threads::shared;

$|++;
ReadMode('cbreak');

my $go;
share($go); # order is important
$go = 1;

# works non-blocking if read stdin is in a thread
my $count = 0;
my $thr = threads->new(\&read_in)->detach;

my $main_loop = Glib::MainLoop->new;
my $timer  = Glib::Timeout->add (1000, \&timer_callback, undef, 1 );
# can also have filehandle watches
#my $watcher;
#$watcher = Glib::IO->add_watch( fileno( $pty ), ['in', 'hup'], \&call
+back);

$main_loop->run;
ReadMode('normal'); # restore normal tty settings

sub timer_callback{
     #do stuff

   if($go){
     $count++;
     print "\n$count\n";
    }
    
    return 1;
}

sub read_in{
        while(1){
         my $char;
         if (defined ($char = ReadKey(0)) ) {
            print "\t\t$char->", ord($char),"\n";    
            #process key presses here
            if($char eq 's'){$go=0}
            if($char eq 'g'){$go=1}
            if($char eq 'q'){exit}
#           if(length $char){exit}  # panic button on any key :-)
                
            }
          }
}

__END__

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I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

In reply to Re: We interrupt this program... by zentara
in thread We interrupt this program... by kansaschuck

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