I once walked up to Harriet Walter while she was having lunch on her own because I thought I knew her, and then when I got up to the table I realised I didn’t know her, I just recognised her because she was Harriet Walter.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
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Failure & regret
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Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
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Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That time I congratulated a waitress on being pregnant.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 June 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →Also my most triumphant: 2017 at the Royal Court. Julie Hesmondhalgh reads my psychologist’s report over two hours. Every excruciating intimate word of it. Extreme verbatim theatre. One night only.
I was about six years old in a market square in Italy and my dad said, “Oh, those shorts would look perfect on you.” So he whipped my trousers off and I hadn’t got any knickers on.
Going on stage and saying, “Good evening Lyon!” I was in Marseille.
More from Graydon Carter
View profile →That I didn’t go to Turkey during the pandemic for one of those male hair treatments.
Content. Cheerful. Appreciative.
Canadians are trained to say sorry to almost everything and everyone.
Be generous and kind. Honestly, those two things did everything for me.
Intermittent laziness.
Getting into a tense argument with Russell Crowe during one of the Vanity Fair Oscar parties.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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