Noel Clarke: How close have you come to death?

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.

Recorded Noel Clarke said elsewhere, not written here

A car crash in the Utah mountains in 2005. We were driving from Arizona to Salt Lake City to go to a basketball game and the car slipped on black ice and we skidded off the motorway, flipped over and rolled down a ravine. The police officer said it was the worst accident he’d seen in 18 years when nobody died.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 April 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Madhur Jaffrey Actress, cook, and TV host

It’s nearly happened twice, each time after an operation.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 February 2021 source ↗

Cynthia Nixon American actress and politician

When I was 13, I was on a bicycle and got hit by a taxi in New York.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 April 2017 source ↗

Sandy Powell British costume designer

When I rode on the back of a motorbike from London to Rome with my eyes closed the entire way.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2019 source ↗

Carl Barât English musician

Probably when I didn’t sleep for a week on drugs in 2009. I’d had a lot of meth and my heart felt like it was giving out. I remember climbing over balconies really high up, and I thought I was going to die, until I eventually fell asleep in someone’s garden.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 March 2022 source ↗