Katherine Parkinson: If you could edit your past, what would you change?

The question

If you could edit your past, what would you change?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Katherine Parkinson

English actor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I wish I hadn’t been a heavy smoker for so many years.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 September 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 211 →

Julian Lloyd Webber British cellist and conductor

Nothing: the good times, the bad times, they make your character.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2023 source ↗

Christy Turlington Burns American model

I might speed up a few details, but wouldn’t change anything, other than my dad still being here.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 May 2017 source ↗

George Michael English singer-songwriter

I should have sung with David Gilmour at Carnegie Hall because I'm a massive fan of Pink Floyd.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2014 source ↗

Emma Barnett British broadcaster and journalist

Not being able to have a baby for two and a half years. Lots of people say it made me a better person; I think it made me worse. You go to a very dark place with your friends because they are having kids, and you want to be happy for them but you’re not.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 February 2021 source ↗