Looks like a bug in Spreadsheet::ParseExcel 0.33.

In the _UnpackRKRec() sub in ParseExcel.pm the following lines:

        ...
        substr($sWk, 3, 1) &= pack('U', $u31);
        ...
        substr($lWk, 0, 1) &= pack('U', $u01);
        ...
[download]

should probably be:

        ...
        substr($sWk, 3, 1) &= pack('c', $u31);
        ...
        substr($lWk, 0, 1) &= pack('c', $u01);
        ...
[download]

If you'd like to raise a bug report feel free. :-) If not I'll do it when I get a chance.

Update: Looks like it has already been reported. I added the above there.

--
John.