Paul Whitehouse: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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.

Recorded Paul Whitehouse said elsewhere, not written here

A professional footballer.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

Alison Moyet English singer

For a while I wanted to be a policewoman, but I didn’t have five O-levels.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 June 2017 source ↗

Harriet Walter English actress

An actor. When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger’s wife.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2017 source ↗

John Prescott Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007

A trade union official.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 April 2018 source ↗

Anna Paquin New Zealand actress

I already had a career when I was growing up.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 July 2019 source ↗

The eradication of poverty would be nice, but at the moment, a double macchiato.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

I was what I call a “nut lifter” in a factory in Enfield. I had to get nuts and bolts from the production line into big tins.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

When my dad died this year.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

When I came round after being seriously ill. I’d had a dose of morphine, the sun was shining and I thought, “Ah yes, I live!”

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 June 2018 source ↗

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