What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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.

Recorded Sarah Hadland said elsewhere, not written here
A missionary in Africa – I think that was Sunday school-based.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗

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Emilia Fox English actress and presenter
A cellist, inspired by my mum and dad’s friendship with Jacqueline du Pré, and seeing a documentary about her.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 October 2018 source ↗

More from Sarah Hadland

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Question Which moment embarrassed you most? Failure & regret
Years ago, I was trying to get with one of the big agencies and I cobbled together a VHS tape of me in adverts and sobbing in The Bill, and took it United Agents for the attention of Dallas Smith. A week later I went back and said, “Has she looked at the tape?” And they were, like, “Dallas is a he, no he hasn’t and he doesn’t want to,” and handed it back to me.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗

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