I recently had a dramatic fall on stage in Hungary. It was a massive stage – I was miles away from the audience – and I didn’t expect there to be two monitors in the middle of it. I went completely arse over tit and landed on my chin. First, I felt shock, pain, embarrassment, and then I felt lucky that I didn’t break any teeth or bite through my tongue. I asked for an ice pack for my chin, got up and finished the set.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
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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.
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.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 124 →If you’re a mother, you are embarrassing. Is that not just the way?
That time I congratulated a waitress on being pregnant.
An earthquake in Peru forced me and a young man into the street, where he had to introduce me to his family at three in the morning.
More from Nigel Havers
View profile →Not playing James Bond.
Every actor has the same fear – ie, you’re never going to work again.
Nothing at all.
Mucking out pigs on a farm when I was 15.
My first wife, because I left her.
That’s the 64-million-dollar question.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 370 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 207 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? 78 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 40 answers
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