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.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗
In the 1990s in New Jersey, being driven to a radio station early one morning. Our driver fell asleep and we were on the other side of a dual carriageway with cars coming at us. We all screamed and banged on the seat, and he woke up and pulled the car back across.
Fifteen years ago, a bacteria went to my heart. For three days they didn’t know if I was going to live or not.
A trip to a Macedonian refugee camp that I switched out of, to go at a later date. Those who took my place were killed in a horrific car accident.
I was on a cliff in Dartmoor, doing a Royal Marine abseil. I fell upside down and thought, “I’m going to die here.”
Losing track (see above).
I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.
Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
A lady came up to me in Tesco last year and said, “Excuse me, but didn’t you used to be Roger McGough?”
Unimpeachable, nonpareil, self‑effacing.
Robert Carlyle, Olivia Williams, Rosanna Arquette, Louis Theroux, Paapa Essiedu, Warren Zevon
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