When I got a doctorate from my alma mater, Brunel. My mother always wanted me to become a doctor.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 February 2018 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
When I got a doctorate from my alma mater, Brunel. My mother always wanted me to become a doctor.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 February 2018 source ↗
When the kids were babies.
The day our daughter was born, or maybe fishing on the Colorado river with my wife and brother and his buddy Earl.
In my 40s: I had two children young enough to think their parents wonderful, my business was booming, I was happily married and living in the Cotswolds with a veg garden and ponies in the paddock. Who could not be happy?
This is going to horribly upset my wife, my children and my grandchildren, but it was when I did The Greatest Snowman last year for Channel 4. Being let loose on an Austrian mountainside to build snow sculptures was my happy point, and who knew I’d find an icy G-spot at nearly 58.
I am an ambassador for Rotary, and we are very close to eradicating polio. When I was younger, I lived in Mumbai and, as a kid from England, I was traumatised by seeing children on the street without limbs.
Everyone cutting out social media for one day a week.
My dog, Mr Q, because he has the saddest look when I leave.
I was rejected by EastEnders, having been called three times. I was heartbroken.
Mathew Varghese, an orthopaedic surgeon who runs India’s only polio ward in Delhi. He provides reconstructive surgery to help survivors walk.
Redeeming mortgages. I did it for a few weeks, and it sealed the deal that I wanted a career in entertainment.
Audra McDonald, Isla Fisher, Julian Clary, Lena Headey, Jane Asher, Josette Simon
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