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.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
Accidentally walking on to set naked for a scene where I wasn’t actually supposed to be naked.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 124 →In the 1950s I went to the Chelsea Arts Club’s New Year’s Eve ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed as a Christmas pudding, with swimming trunks under my costume and holly in my hair.
Daryl McCormack
Irish actor
Missing a cue on stage. I had to come on and move a piece of furniture with another actor and I completely forgot. I looked at the monitor and said, “Why is he standing on his own?” And somebody said, “Aren’t you meant to help him?”
Forgetting the words to my own songs on stage. I’m a very good mumbler of my own songs. You’d be surprised how few people notice – if you smile and do it confidently, they’re none the wiser.
More from Hugh Skinner
View profile →Like nothing’s a problem.
Everything’s temporary, and how to make aioli.
I’m not interested.
People singing in the street.
Catastrophising.
Snobbishness, superiority, condescension.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 369 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 205 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
Also answered this
Alison Steadman, Michael Ball, Brandi Carlile, Paul McKenna, Pauline McLynn, Stockard Channing
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