Harry Redknapp
English football player and manager
I was probably too cheeky to chairmen over the years.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2019 source ↗
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
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
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.
Going through a divorce.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Oliver Sacks
Neurologist and writer
The peace of the Sabbath, of a stopped world, a time outside time, was palpable, infused everything, and I found myself drenched with a wistfulness, something akin to nostalgia, wondering what if: What if A and B and C had been different? What sort of person might I have been? What sort of a life might I have lived?
Recorded The New York Times, Sunday Review, 14 August 2015 source ↗
Beverley Knight
Singer and stage actor
Some of the neuroses of my 20s. I knew I had a great talent, but I thought it was unmarketable because I felt ugly.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗
Russell Howard
British comedian and presenter
I wouldn’t lose my virginity at an army camp and then roll over on to an ants’ nest.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2020 source ↗
More from Helen George
View profile →Waitressing. I was so bad. I smashed things. I once mistakenly ordered a very expensive bottle of wine for a table. They thought they were ordering a very average bottle of wine, and I ordered them an £800 bottle and they drank it. I got the sack a few weeks later.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
When I was young, I was pretty reckless – my 20s were quite hedonistic. I don’t know whether I’ve been close to death, but I may have been without realising.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
To still be working.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
To let things go.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
A grandfather clock for my partner’s birthday.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
As a child playing in my parents’ garden in Birmingham, which they still have, and where my daughters play, swinging on my swing that my dad made for me.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
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