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.
At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 May 2018 source ↗
The two times I've been pregnant. With Jessie, I lay on a sofa and watched The West Wing for nine months.
Right here, right now.
During the war - to a teenager, wartime is very exciting. And when there was no traffic, I could ride my bike about the lovely Yorkshire lanes with not a car in sight. And I'm very happy today because I'm not skint.
My childhood at Graceland. And after having all my children.
I fell off a ladder, landed on my back, got up and was fine.
After I got arrested, my dad, a lawyer, took me to a QC to try to build a case against the FBI. The dejection on his face when it became obvious that we couldn’t was disappointing.
A snazzy coffee machine that grinds beans and steams milk.
My mum, because she smuggled me into the National Youth Theatre during summer time when my dad didn’t want me to be an actor, and she’s seen everything I’ve done.
In Brooklyn, I was a dishwasher in a sandwich shop.
Joanna Scanlan, Bruce Willis, Michael Ball, Robert Carlyle, Kylie Minogue, Viggo Mortensen
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