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 hired two private detectives and got them to follow each other.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 April 2025 source ↗
My first summer working, in 1984. I’d come out of drama school, I’d landed a job that got me an Equity card doing Godspell in Aberystwyth – and it was just unmitigated joy.
When I was about to embark on filming The Lord Of The Rings, prior to any kind of fame or notoriety, full of hope and dreams, and excitement of the adventures ahead.
On a caravan site on a farm in the Brecon Beacons when I was a kid. I have three sisters and every year we met family friends with kids the same age. We would go to the river and make rope swings and build dens. It was very Enid Blyton.
When I was a kid with no responsibilities.
Healthier food from motorway service stations – I am always going through them late at night and it’s all rubbish.
Oh, most days. I can watch a political programme and think, “That sounds a really good point.” Then someone will argue the opposite and I’ll think, “Yeah, he’s got a point as well.” I am constantly sitting on a fence.
Not being able to laugh at themselves.
Being offered a lift by James Acaster.
Quiet, sharp, clumsy.
Ambulances – I live near a hospital.
Keeley Hawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marina Diamandis, Irvine Welsh, Douglas Booth, Julia Donaldson
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