James Norton
English actor
I would have started therapy earlier.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 July 2022 source ↗
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Some of the neuroses of my 20s. I knew I had a great talent, but I thought it was unmarketable because I felt ugly.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Lionel Shriver
American author
I would have taken more drugs.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 May 2016 source ↗
I’d have gone solo sooner.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 November 2025 source ↗
Melanie Blatt
English singer
I would put the brain that I have now into my 20-year-old body.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 July 2023 source ↗
More from Beverley Knight
View profile →I am a shoe and bag freak. I shelled out for a Chanel handbag on eBay and it was still four figures!
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗
On a flight to Newcastle, when we had terrible storms. The plane dropped quickly and the oxygen masks fell down. We had to land in Manchester.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗
Having a career that’s 29 years in.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗
It’s another bloody Prince song, I’m so sorry – Mountains. I love how the chord structure ascends and the vocals – “It’s only mountains and the sea / There’s nothing greater than you and me” – feel like an ascension. I’d like to think, when I shuffle off this mortal coil, I’m going to be ascending as opposed to descending. I think I’ve been a good girl.
Recorded The Guardian, Honest playlist, The Guardian, 21 December 2025 source ↗
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