John Simpson
English journalist
Reading the news. It’s a dull job.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
In Brooklyn, I was a dishwasher in a sandwich shop.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 May 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
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Elaine Paige
English singer and actress
Maybe That’s Your Problem, a musical about premature ejaculation. It closed after only 18 performances.
Chris Hoy
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Delivering papers in the freezing cold for my granny. I got paid in Panini football stickers, so it wasn’t all bad.
Cressida Cowell
British writer
I was a terrible secretary in a publishing company (clumsy, disorganised, hid letters behind the filing cabinet because I was supposed to have done something with them and I wasn’t sure what).
More from Adeel Akhtar
View profile →After I got arrested, my dad, a lawyer, took me to a QC to try to build a case against the FBI. The dejection on his face when it became obvious that we couldn’t was disappointing.
I fell off a ladder, landed on my back, got up and was fine.
My mum, because she smuggled me into the National Youth Theatre during summer time when my dad didn’t want me to be an actor, and she’s seen everything I’ve done.
A snazzy coffee machine that grinds beans and steams milk.
At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.
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Adjoa Andoh, Adrian Dunbar, Adrian Edmondson, Aidan Gillen, Alison Steadman, Andrea Riseborough
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