The Prince and Princess of Wales for not knowing when to leave their home.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I say it a lot to my kids when I’ve lost my temper, and I’ll save up a big one for when they are 18.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 January 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →Myself. I didn’t know how to protect myself adequately when I was younger, and I think I would have experienced my youth differently if I had.
My father, with whom I had a complex relationship: often, when I was young, his desire to protect me clashed with the stubbornness of my choices.
Dominic Cooper
English actor
To Ms Dooley, for failing my maths GCSE several times over.
More from Martin Freeman
View profile →It’s hard to beat David Attenborough. Everything he does is quality. I like people who make me proud to be British.
“I don’t love you.”
I love clothes and accoutrements, so it would be either a suit or a watch. I love Mark Powell in Soho, and Paul Smith.
When I am in Italy with the family, not thinking about work.
A really careful lobotomy, to switch off bits of my brain.
I wanted to be a footballer and then a squash player – I was in with a chance because I was very good. But I fell out of love with that by 14 or 15 and joined a youth theatre.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Dan Stevens, Omid Djalili, Angela Griffin, Patricia Hodge, Gemma Whelan, John Waters
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject