Francesca Martinez
British comedian
The 2019 general election.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
At the time, losing our business, home and all our possessions in 1991 after the failure of our jewellery company. But if that had not happened then other good things would not have happened, either.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 May 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 219 →
Rhys Ifans
Welsh actor and musician
That things didn’t get better.
Barack Obama
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. … And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months.
Olly Alexander
English singer and actor
Early in my career I got really close to being one of the kids in the Narnia movie. I remember being crushed.
More from Monty Don
View profile →My children. I was away an awful lot when they were little and not very good at being a father when I was around. I could have done better.
Despite a stroke, cancer as a child and various dramas with chainsaws and tractors, the closest was probably when I choked on a lamb chop 25 years ago. Sarah performed the Heimlich manoeuvre and the lamb shot out.
Getting my 21-year-old knees back.
I once had to dig a fire escape from a basement in a health club. It took two weeks.
A tractor, 12 years ago. Bright yellow and still brilliant.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 60 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Adam Kay, Adrian Edmondson, Eve Ensler, Fran Lebowitz, Irvine Welsh, Jacqueline Wilson
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