I would build relationships. I would remember people’s significant moments. I would not fear closeness.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
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.
I would have stopped making records after They Don’t Know.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Kelsey Grammer
American actor
My sister’s death – I would love to meet her kids. [Karen Grammer was 18 when she was abducted, raped and murdered.]
Jason Isaacs
English actor
I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to be a professional skateboarder or snooker player.
Michael Kiwanuka
English singer-songwriter
Nothing. Everything happens for a reason.
More from Tracey Ullman
View profile →On a plane with Meryl Streep in 1984: the engines blew and we had to make an emergency landing.
Realising as I grew up that people don’t really know what they’re doing.
When I met my husband and had babies. They have made me happy ever since.
I did a crap impersonation of JK Rowling a few years ago. Sorry, JK. Can this apology put me on a casting list for your next mega-franchise?
The End by the Beatles.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 218 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 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? 35 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Adam Clayton, Adam Kay, Adam Lambert, Adele Parks, Adrian Edmondson, Adrian Scarborough
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject