Adrian Scarborough
British actor
The first 12 years of school. I was very unhappy. I was not academic, so I played the fool till I was 16.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
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.
The loss of Conrad.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 205 →
Kim Gordon
American musician and artist
I wouldn’t care so much what people thought.
Jessica Brown Findlay
English actress
My password. [In 2014, Brown Findlay’s iCloud account was hacked.]
Bill Bryson
American-British author
Nothing. It’s too risky. What if you eliminated a misjudged situation from your life and it turned out that one of your children wasn’t born, or you failed to meet your partner?
More from Chris Bonington
View profile →It’s my snoring that keeps Loreto awake!
I left the army and got a job with Unilever in Northern Ireland. They were very strict and you had to have a hat, and when you went into a shop you had to raise your hat to the shopkeeper and then sell your wares. I was selling margarine.
When I was climbing I was absolutely happy. I can use a climbing wall, but that’s not the same as real climbing.
Whenever things seem absolutely terrible, to see that you’re alive and that’s all that matters.
There are so many instances when I’ve come very close to death that it’s difficult to pick one.
Becoming more physically active.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 369 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
Also answered this
Gareth Bale, Andy Roddick, Judy Murray, Harry Redknapp, Simone Biles, Ronnie O'Sullivan
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