A comedian or the guy who drives the little truck around airports that takes old ladies to their gate.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A detective, a train driver on the underground and Leyton Orient’s centre forward.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
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Tracy-Ann Oberman
Actor and writer
An actress. My family thought it was ridiculous, it was like saying you wanted to be an astronaut.
Paul Whitehouse
Welsh comedian
A professional footballer.
David Harewood
British actor and presenter
I had no idea. When I was a week away from leaving school, a teacher said, “We’ve been talking in the staffroom and we all think you should be an actor.” I thought, “That’s exactly what I want.” The rest is history.
More from Julian Lloyd Webber
View profile →My cello. At the time, in 1983, it was £192,500.
I’m president of my neighbourhood association. At my first meeting there was a discussion about developments the association should oppose. I said: “Nothing could be as bad as that horrible new house next to the church.” “I designed that,” the chairman replied. I shut up.
When the surgeon told me I wouldn’t be able to play the cello again, in 2013. I have a herniated disc and it’s pressing on a nerve in my neck. I announced I was stopping playing in 2014. I absolutely did not want to stop.
Frightening, exhilarating and all-consuming.
Seeing Leyton Orient in the premiership.
Twice I should have died in car accidents when both my cars were written off. I was completely unhurt; the cello was completely unhurt, too. A complete miracle.
More on identity & self
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Tamsin Greig, John Lewis, Mariella Frostrup, Vick Hope, Anne Enright, Dervla Kirwan
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