The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
There are different flavours of happy, but I think my favourite is the quiet contentment when several generations of family are sitting together watching a crowd-pleaser like Harry Potter on the telly.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 February 2022 source ↗
Being an uncle brings me utter joy.
At drama school, because I started having relationships with other men and found a satisfying job.
The first time I stood on top of the hill that I now live on, in 2007.
When I started getting to grips with playing the guitar, aged 11.
I’d rather be enjoyed while I am still here.
My biggest disappointment is always myself. That’s my Catholic upbringing.
The Strictly Come Dancing final almost destroyed me. I was howling all the way through – John and Johannes and then Rose and Giovanni. Oh my God.
I wanted to be like my dad, who was an academic, because he had an office packed full of books, always had loud music on, and seemed to get to do what he wanted.
It would have been lovely to have grown up in private like a lot of my friends.
A caravan. I was brought up going on caravan holidays – but we quickly realised that a double-axle caravan was too much of a commitment and sold it.
Tom Ellis, Matthew Bourne, Terry O'Neill, Arlene Phillips, Pauline McLynn, Sofie Gråbøl
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