In my 20s, touring small arts centres with my best mate, performing sketch comedy to a handful of people.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 October 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.
In my 20s, touring small arts centres with my best mate, performing sketch comedy to a handful of people.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 October 2018 source ↗
When I came round after being seriously ill. I’d had a dose of morphine, the sun was shining and I thought, “Ah yes, I live!”
I won a local art competition aged 10 – the first time I’d won anything.
I can't remember a time when I was happier than now, to be honest – though that's always been the case.
Whenever I’m with my wife and I’m not preoccupied with work.
An eye surgeon. I had an operation on my cornea when I was little, and remember being deeply enamoured with the team who looked after me. Subsequently, I was very disappointed to learn that a degree of scientific aptitude was required for the job, which ruled me out.
Anna dared me to jump off a cliff in Menorca on holiday a couple of years ago. I did. I fell 30m through the air, hit the water at an odd angle and shattered my coccyx.
Not accepting every dare.
Cleaning toilets in a hotel in Croydon when I was 16. A guest once gave me a half-eaten bag of pistachios as a tip, so there were perks.
Steve Coogan, Viggo Mortensen, Shirley MacLaine, David Oyelowo, Chloë Sevigny, Alan Dale
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