SP
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.
Others on this question
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Archie Panjabi
British actress
When I got a doctorate from my alma mater, Brunel. My mother always wanted me to become a doctor.
At the SAG awards in 2016. I remember going into that night saying to myself, “I might not be here again; let me be fully in the moment.” The cast of Orange Is the New Black won the acting-ensemble award for the second year in a row, and I was there with a man I truly loved. That night was everything I had always dreamed about.
Any time I’m in rehearsals.
Joyce Carol Oates
Novelist, short story writer and essayist
On two dates: 23 January 1961 and 13 March 2009 (my two weddings).
More from Sue Perkins
View profile →Not accepting every dare.
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.
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.
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.
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