After I got arrested, my dad, a lawyer, took me to a QC to try to build a case against the FBI. The dejection on his face when it became obvious that we couldn’t was disappointing.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 May 2018 source ↗
The question
What disappointment has stayed with you longest?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
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Others on this question
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Robert Peston
British journalist
I am rarely disappointed. I try to make the best of things.
Ray Winstone
English actor
Losing my mum when I was 28.
Robin Gibb
British singer
The way some of the music industry is being run now. Music is being treated as one big karaoke machine.
Prue Leith
South African-British chef, broadcaster, and writer
Public catering in the parks, where we lost a tonne of money. Now the public will buy excellent simple, fresh food. All they wanted in the 80s were slimy burgers, Mr Whippy and Coke.
More from Adeel Akhtar
View profile →A snazzy coffee machine that grinds beans and steams milk.
I fell off a ladder, landed on my back, got up and was fine.
At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.
My mum, because she smuggled me into the National Youth Theatre during summer time when my dad didn’t want me to be an actor, and she’s seen everything I’ve done.
In Brooklyn, I was a dishwasher in a sandwich shop.
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