I had spinal meningitis when I was 13.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗
The question
How close have you come to death?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I had spinal meningitis when I was 13.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗
When I had a bicycle accident when I was 24. I was on a bridge going down; the bicycle broke and I smashed to the ground, face first. I broke my jaw and my teeth, and had to have plastic surgery. It all took half a year and then, funnily enough, I got my first big job – a TV series – with what I thought of then as this big, ugly scar.
Last year, driving in California, I found myself on the wrong side of the road. I was 30 seconds away from hitting two cars coming the other way.
My parents died within four days of each other. I was engulfed as I ran from one bedside to another.
Abseiling down a cliff for Doc Martin in a suit, carrying a medical bag.
To my 17-year-old daughter Isabella, whom I described in an interview last year as "keen on maths".
As a well-balanced and functioning thin man.
Still being married to Annabel.
When my bowels move freely and without complications.
Selling low-grade cookery books in west London office buildings.
The character of Frasier Crane – he's given me hours of laughter and an appreciation of the finer things in life.
Martin Clunes, Martin Kemp, Stephen Graham, Tom Ellis, Peter Capaldi, Bertie Carvel
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