The question
How close have you come to dying?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.
Diving in the Virgin Islands. I lost sight of the boat and had to swim to a tiny, deserted island. After a great deal of time, the rescue boat saw me waving for my life on the rocks.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 May 2021 source ↗
A running accident when I was 14 or 15. I fainted but I was a bit of a jester and they thought I was taking the piss, so I was left for a bit. I woke up in hospital.
A car accident in Italy in 1990. Four people got killed. I was lucky, I got thrown out.
When I was doing my gold swimming badge. I had to get undressed in a swimming pool and had forgotten my gym kit, so the teacher gave me a kit two sizes too small. In the water, I got my arms up over my head to get the shirt off and they locked. I sank to the bottom of the pool and sat there until a girl jumped in and dragged me back up again.
On the interstate. Anyone who has driven in the United States will know that you are always very close to death – it is like the wild west on the freeways.
At the time, not landing the role of Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army, but it all worked out fine in the long run.
Dreaming that I am about to go on stage or set but haven’t got the right script.
Warmth and security.
Not getting older at each birthday, but I appreciate it beats the alternative.
Scrabbling about under dusty floorboards as an electrician in my early 20s.
Aidan Gillen, Cynthia Nixon, Emilia Fox, Orlando Bloom, Bertie Carvel, Gemma Chan
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