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In my 20s, touring small arts centres with my best mate, performing sketch comedy to a handful of people.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 October 2018 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
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Others on this question
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Harry Enfield
English comedy actor and writer
An eight-hour walk along the north Cornwall coast with my eldest children - aged eight and 10. Whoever has eight hours of solid conversation with their children? I loved every minute.
Cybill Shepherd
American actress and former model
Visiting my children at college. I don't stay long, because their lives are so busy - the way they should be.
Tim Rice
English lyricist and author
When I was seven. I remember it as a golden time, long gone.
Sally Phillips
British actress
At the birth of each of my children. Drugs were involved.
More from Sue Perkins
View profile →Not accepting every dare.
An eye surgeon. I had an operation on my cornea when I was little, and remember being deeply enamoured with the team who looked after me. Subsequently, I was very disappointed to learn that a degree of scientific aptitude was required for the job, which ruled me out.
Anna dared me to jump off a cliff in Menorca on holiday a couple of years ago. I did. I fell 30m through the air, hit the water at an odd angle and shattered my coccyx.
Cleaning toilets in a hotel in Croydon when I was 16. A guest once gave me a half-eaten bag of pistachios as a tip, so there were perks.
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