Not a child, which was short-sighted of me.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
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.
When I was a child, it was a bus driver or engine driver; then, when I was a teenager, I went to the theatre and wanted to be an actor.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 195 →A radio journalist or on the till at Marks & Spencer.
Jessica Raine
British actress
I was fidgety and clueless for a long time.
Father John Misty
American musician
A mutant turtle ninja.
More from Roger Allam
View profile →Picking tiny bits of glass out of long grass for Haringey council, 45 years ago.
Just remembered, really.
I was very proud of doing Falstaff, because it seemed to go well.
Reading aloud the last two pages of a book about Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell. It was about his relationship with his cat, and a letter to a friend whose dog had died. It’s about letting the unexpected happen to you, and how that can really be what life is about.
The third or fourth glass of wine.
Not being active in my own desires.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Hayley Squires, Joanne Froggatt, Dawn O'Porter, Sofia Coppola, Toyah Willcox, Felicity Jones
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject