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
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
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.
Every time I got drunk and out of order. Especially in my teens and 20s.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 February 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Florence Welch
British singer
Perhaps a few drunken incidents – but I’ll keep the coat.
Katherine Parkinson
English actor
I wish I hadn’t been a heavy smoker for so many years.
Riz Ahmed
British actor and rapper
I would care less about what people think.
More from Julie Hesmondhalgh
View profile →Worrying that I’ve upset people.
Childbirth. And the wheel of our camper van coming clean off on the M1.
An old camper van that has cost me more in repairs than my house, my wedding and all the holidays I’ve ever been on.
I cleaned for a very posh lady in Knightsbridge who made me handwash her knickers. I’d advertised myself in The Lady as a dog walker, so I’m not sure how I ended up there.
To all those whose fleeting interaction with me has fallen short of what they’d hoped; the unwitting recipients of my occasional grumpiness.
That the last general election didn’t take place later. We might have got rid of the Tories with a couple more weeks.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 219 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? 36 answers
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Adrian Edmondson, Adrian Scarborough, Aidan Gillen, Alison Steadman, Ann Dowd, Beverley Knight
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