PH
One of my favourite songs is Being Alive, from Company by Stephen Sondheim, but it would hardly be appropriate.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗
The question
What song would you want played at your funeral?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.
Others on this question
View all 178 →
Burt Reynolds
American actor
The psalm would be the 23rd. I’ll have to think about the song.
Denise Lewis
Heptathlete and broadcaster
I’m living for ever, so I won’t be having one. But just in case, I can imagine My Way by Frank Sinatra belting out as I’m cremated or put in the ground.
Gemma Whelan
English actress
I want people to really, really cry so The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams.
Madhur Jaffrey
Actress, cook, and TV host
None: I do not want a funeral.
More from Patricia Hodge
View profile →In the minutes, hours, days and weeks after having my children. I was 42 and 45. There’s nothing like new life.
My piano, a boudoir grand. I’ve played since I was six.
A ballet dancer, but it changed to being an actress when I got put in a school play.
The Queen. Her like has not been seen before and I doubt it will ever be again.
Two days ago, at a family wedding, remembering Richard, my cousin. He was 11 months younger than me and we were brought up like brother and sister for the first four years of our lives. He died of a brain tumour when he was 55.
Not applying myself enough at school.
More on death & what remains
- How would you want people to remember you? 213 answers
- How close have you come to dying? 209 answers
- If you had only one day left, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid? 54 answers
- What do you believe happens when we die? 50 answers
- What would you most want to leave your children? 44 answers
- What kind of death would you consider a good one? 43 answers
Also answered this
Rory Kinnear, Julia Stiles, Tom Ellis, Peter Capaldi, Sofie Gråbøl, Julie Andrews
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All death & what remains questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject