TD
Holding my two babies, Phoebe and Amber, for the first time.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 December 2016 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
View all 577 →In 1993, making love on the beach of a deserted island in the Bahamas.
Bobby Gillespie
Singer and songwriter
Standing on stage in between Robert Young and Andrew Innes, blasting away.
Sofie Gråbøl
Danish actress
Most recently, going to a 1D concert at Wembley with my nine-year-old daughter. Seeing her dream becoming real. The highlight was meeting a nice man in the elevator when it was over, who gave her Harry's autograph. Turned out to be his dad. To my daughter that was like meeting the archangel Gabriel.
Edwina Currie
Former British politician, broadcaster and writer
I am happy now.
More from Tess Daly
View profile →Serving bar snacks in a pub in my teens. Once I spilled an entire family’s Sunday lunch into the dad’s lap.
Bruce Forsyth, because not only is he the most talented showman, he is the most generous individual.
On a motorway three years ago. An HGV hadn’t seen me and pulled out. My father-in-law’s a truck driver and he said black cars are not very visible. I don’t drive them any more.
More on time & hindsight
- What lesson has mattered most in your life? 138 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Ed Harris, Sheridan Smith, Maureen O'Hara, Sam Taylor-Wood, Speech Debelle, Bruce Willis
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject