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.
I inadvertently rubbed the milky residue of a toxic cactus plant into my eye while filming Women In Love in the desert in Namibia, and my body went into anaphylactic shock as the producer sped me to a clinic 50 miles away.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 August 2017 source ↗
When I was young, I was pretty reckless – my 20s were quite hedonistic. I don’t know whether I’ve been close to death, but I may have been without realising.
I was almost run over by a bus when I was 13. And in 1991, in the Gulf war, an Iraqi missile hit close to my house.
Anna dared me to jump off a cliff in Menorca on holiday a couple of years ago. I did. I fell 30m through the air, hit the water at an odd angle and shattered my coccyx.
A blood clot in my artery when I was 23.
Finding your place.
Last week I saw a moorhen feeding her chicks, and became overwhelmed by the miracle of parenthood and maternal sacrifice. And I hadn’t even been drinking.
That will depend on when and how I die, but you couldn’t beat The Birdie Song to set the right tone.
Finding cucumber in things is a continual disappointment.
It’s a toss-up between organising a new filing system at Hammersmith & Fulham social services and relying on tips in the least popular restaurant in London to get through drama school.
As the father of Celtic’s all-time top goalscorer (that’s either of my kids).
Anna Friel, Martin Clunes, Charles Dance, Noel Clarke, Carlos Acosta, Reggie Yates
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