Fifteen years ago, I totally forgot my lines on stage and was mortified. We skipped two pages of dialogue and took three minutes off the play – to the delight of the audience!

Falling off the stage and on to the pianist during the opening number in the Mother Goose pantomime at the Citizens theatre in Glasgow.

The very first day that I was filming Top Gear, for which I was so unqualified because I’d only ever driven a Fiat Uno. I got into a DB7 Vantage Volante outside the Aston Martin factory, put my foot on the accelerator and bunny-hopped across the gravel because I’d forgotten to take the handbrake off.

I’ve never seen Star Wars (I know!) and on my first day of a recent job, I’m sitting next to this very friendly actor. I ask if he has much experience with motion capture. He says, “Yes.” I say “Oh great! What have you worked on?” He says, “I’m Mark Hamill.”

With a wistful smile.

I worked a janitorial job, cleaning university dormitories after students had gone home for the summer. You can’t imagine the condition some of those rooms were in. They could have doubled as sets for a slasher film.

We are too often advised to live life to the fullest. That’s too much pressure. The key is to find joy and poignancy in the quiet and mundane. Life is lived between the so-called big moments.

I don’t even voice them. Perhaps the books are my outlet here.

A white-hot explosion that turns into a comforting warmth.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if I could go back and fix the mistake, I wouldn’t be here.