PH
A ballet dancer, but it changed to being an actress when I got put in a school play.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗
The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
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Others on this question
View all 197 →
Joss Stone
English singer, songwriter, and actress
A veterinarian, but I decided against it because it required too many years of schooling; I wasn’t great at school.
Vick Hope
British television and radio presenter
J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.
Rick Astley
Singer, songwriter and radio presenter
When I was about 14 and got my first drum kit, I wanted to be a drummer in a band like the Police.
Aidan Gillen
Irish actor
A stuntman. Evel Knievel was an icon.
More from Patricia Hodge
View profile →The Queen. Her like has not been seen before and I doubt it will ever be again.
Not having four children.
My piano, a boudoir grand. I’ve played since I was six.
I wish I could say sorry to my husband, because I couldn’t save him from his dementia.
Not applying myself enough at school.
One of my favourite songs is Being Alive, from Company by Stephen Sondheim, but it would hardly be appropriate.
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