The question

When were you most embarrassed?

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The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

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Putting chocolate mousse in my agent’s face. Somebody had done it to me – that thing where they go, “Smell this, it smells funny”, and then they put it in your nose. A year later I was in this French restaurant with a very 1980s-style dessert trolley and, before I knew it, I had a bowl of chocolate mousse in front of me. And my agent went, “What’s that smell?”, and it felt impossible not to … I immediately felt awful and tried to apologise. He, of course, said that he found it funny. But I knew he didn’t.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗
Shakin' Stevens Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter
I was in the musical Elvis, and after a costume change I went below stage to be raised up on a platform. As I was raised up, I blanked and couldn’t remember the first line of the song King Creole. I mumbled the first few lines and hoped nobody would notice.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2023 source ↗
In the 1950s I went to the Chelsea Arts Club’s New Year’s Eve ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed as a Christmas pudding, with swimming trunks under my costume and holly in my hair.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗

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