The question
What disappointment has stayed with you longest?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Not standing up to bullies.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 May 2025 source ↗
Not being able to keep up piano lessons. I did a year and I was really good and loved it and then my parents couldn’t afford for me to continue.
At the time, losing our business, home and all our possessions in 1991 after the failure of our jewellery company. But if that had not happened then other good things would not have happened, either.
When I left drama school, I thought I was going to work at the Royal Court and tell stories about political injustice. I got cast in ITV murder mysteries.
The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.
When I decided that Mavis Staples was right – I don’t need to despise myself.
“And for you, sir?” It happens a lot.
High-functioning introvert.
A ballet dancer.
Nick Cave for his determination to hold a space for public discourse on the deep and difficult and mysterious elements of life.
Throwing up all over the red velvet seats in the House of Lords on a school trip, aged nine.
Walton Goggins, Stockard Channing, Juliet Stevenson, Matthew Kelly, Gloria Steinem, Tony Christie
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