Falling off what we in Middlesbrough call a “tarzy”, a bungee rope. I was swinging on it, fell and broke my arm.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 November 2020 source ↗
The question
How close have you come to dying?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring 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 209 →
Bradley Wiggins
British former professional road and track racing cyclist
I had quite a chequered childhood. I had a knife put to my throat once when I was a kid, which was very scary.
Stephen Graham
English actor
I was knocked over by a taxi in Liverpool when I was seven. And I fell off the seventh storey of a car park when I was 10 and broke both legs, my collarbone and my arm.
Eleanor Tomlinson
English actress
A horse-riding accident when I was about 15.
Erin O'Connor
English model
An emergency landing in a snow storm in Philadelphia.
More from Steph McGovern
View profile →As a good friend.
On BBC Breakfast, I accidentally said “fuck” on air. My microphone had been turned on when I wasn’t in the room. It went out across the telly and they had to apologise.
A poster for The Godfather, my favourite film, signed by Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and everyone. I got drunk at a children’s charity auction and started buying everything!
For Good, from the bit in Wicked the Musical where the two witches go their separate ways. The lyrics are about people coming to your life for a reason, who might not stay very long, but there’s a reason they’ve played a part in your life. I well up thinking about it.
At the beginning of lockdown; it was just me and my new baby and my partner in the house. It was lovely.
Some famous people. I am not giving you names.
More on death & what remains
- How would you want people to remember you? 213 answers
- What song would you want played at your funeral? 178 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
Bryn Terfel, Hamza Yassin, Emma Bunton, Juliet Stevenson, Harry Redknapp, George Takei
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