When I was 16, my dad got drunk at the Oval cricket ground and harangued Sir Garry Sobers, possibly the greatest cricketer of all time, because he didn’t agree with who he’d given as man of the match.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Putting chocolate mousse in my agent’s face. Somebody had done it to me – that thing where they go, “Smell this, it smells funny”, and then they put it in your nose. A year later I was in this French restaurant with a very 1980s-style dessert trolley and, before I knew it, I had a bowl of chocolate mousse in front of me. And my agent went, “What’s that smell?”, and it felt impossible not to … I immediately felt awful and tried to apologise. He, of course, said that he found it funny. But I knew he didn’t.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Kathy Lette
Australian-British author
Bumping into my male boss at a nudist beach.
Recently, sending a negative text about a person to that person.
Being an actor is inherently embarrassing. You have to embrace it.
More from Tom Burke
View profile →You reach a certain point in life and suddenly know a lot of dead people, and I’ve noticed you don’t stop getting to know people who are dead. Those relationships continue and I like that.
A movie. Does it have a name? It might do.
I’ve not always been great friend material. I’ve tried to get better at that, so to be remembered as reliable by a few would be great.
A running accident when I was 14 or 15. I fainted but I was a bit of a jester and they thought I was taking the piss, so I was left for a bit. I woke up in hospital.
It’s usually a slight feeling that, having got through the day, I didn’t get any time to do any writing or something creative – it was a lot of admin, exhaustion from that and rumination.
Steady, reaching, bewildered.
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Adam Lambert, Adele Parks, Alex Hassell, Alison Steadman, Andrew O’Hagan, Bear Grylls
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