Floella Benjamin
British actress, presenter, and peer
A teacher. Teachers can change lives.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 February 2017 source ↗
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I only ever wanted to be an actor or a rock star. I was suspended from school in the sixth form and allowed back only when I promised to join the army. But I lied.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 191 →
Olivia Williams
British actress
My mother says I had a plan to be a farmer’s wife and a violinist, going to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in my tractor.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗
Romesh Ranganathan
English actor and comedian
A comedian or rapper. You can tell by the way I’m dressed that I’m a frustrated rapper.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 August 2024 source ↗
Felicity Jones
British actress
A magazine editor.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 May 2023 source ↗
More from Adrian Edmondson
View profile →Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Whenever Rik and I got stuck writing a script, we would put this on and the world would immediately seem to be a more stupidly brilliant place again.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
Not doing Top Of The Pops when The Young Ones’ single went to number one.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
I hit a bit of lumpy tarmac driving my motorbike over the Pyrenees in the early 1980s. There was no safety barrier and I found myself riding along the edge of a precipice on half the width of the tyres for 100 yards.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
I worked in the largest pork pie factory in Europe. I had a plastic mushroom-shaped thing and had to tamp down the meat into the pie base. It was a conveyor belt of pies from nine to five. The worst thing was the crackly AM radio, which was played loudly through the tinny tannoy system. I still can’t listen to I’m Not In Love by 10cc without thinking of raw minced pork.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
My granddaughter is only one, but she gives the best hugs. That’s when I’m happiest at the moment.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
I practise stoicism. Not the stiff-upper-lip, modern stuff, but the ancient Greek philosophy. You have to accept what you can’t change. I try to face forwards all the time. When that doesn’t work, I think about buying a machine gun.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗
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