DJ
Not getting older at each birthday, but I appreciate it beats the alternative.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 May 2021 source ↗
The question
If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 203 →Maybe I should have agreed to take the job of controller of BBC One when Bill Cotton offered it to me. I do feel a wimp; I would have been the first woman in the job.What do you consider your greatest achievement? I don’t really claim credit, I hope, for helping to launch Childline and the Silver Line and Silver Stories. It is an achievement that they all exist, but that is down to their amazing teams.
My failures have taught me more than the successes, so not much.
Felicity Jones
British actress
I wouldn’t change anything. Life is what it is, you just have to get on with it.
Julia Stiles
American actress
I’d have been less precocious as a child (you grow up fast in New York). I’d have prolonged the naivety.
More from David Jason
View profile →Diving in the Virgin Islands. I lost sight of the boat and had to swim to a tiny, deserted island. After a great deal of time, the rescue boat saw me waving for my life on the rocks.
At the time, not landing the role of Lance-Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army, but it all worked out fine in the long run.
Scrabbling about under dusty floorboards as an electrician in my early 20s.
Warmth and security.
Dreaming that I am about to go on stage or set but haven’t got the right script.
More on failure & regret
- What disappointment has stayed with you longest? 367 answers
- Who deserves an apology from you, and for what? 209 answers
- What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- When were you most embarrassed? 122 answers
- How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 35 answers
Also answered this
Burt Reynolds, Edward Fox, Jessica Hynes, Joss Stone, Jodie Whittaker, Charlotte Church
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