In 1982, having travelled for three years to do the first journey around the earth on its polar axis. Charles Burton and I were trying to get from the north pole down to our ship on the edge of the Arctic Sea. We had to float for three months on a diminishing ice floe. Eventually we had to leave the floe and try to get to the ship in canoes with skis under them. In the maze of broken ice we saw its masts on the horizon. That second was probably my happiest moment.
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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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 November 2009 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →When I was 15 and starting my first job as a messenger boy at the post office, delivering telegrams.
Watching Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury. During Because The Night I actually shouted, "This is the greatest moment of my life!"
On a walking safari in the middle of the Kenyan bush. I had no phone, no mirror, nothing, and I was really happy because I had no distractions.
More from Charles Dance
View profile →Comforting, uplifting, all consuming.
I’m getting closer all the time.
My ex-wife, for the way I behaved towards the end of our marriage.
Treating a flock of sheep for foot rot when I was a farm labourer.
To still be working.
My rational brain doing battle with my emotional brain.
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