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The question

When were you most embarrassed?

Originally asked

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

A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.

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

KS
Keir Starmer
Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
When I was appointed director of public prosecutions, I had a government car and visited the security services. When I came out, I got into the back of what I thought was my car, but it was somebody’s private car and they told me in no uncertain terms to get out. I had to reverse out with as much dignity as I could, with the head of security services watching.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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John Simm English musician and actor
Going to pieces while meeting John Squire, the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses, backstage after a gig. I completely lost the ability to speak. I told him I had the same guitars as he’d just used on stage, and when he asked me which ones, the words completely went out of my head and there was a huge pause, and then his wife tapped his shoulder and he wandered off.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗
In my 20s I was in a show called The Unauthorised Autobiography of Samantha Brown. The actor who played my dad messed up his lines and it made me laugh so hard that I ended up peeing my pants.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗
Sofia Coppola American filmmaker and actress
Being on the cover of a magazine at 18 with the slogan: “Did she ruin The Godfather?”
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 March 2023 source ↗

More from Keir Starmer

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Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains
Before I was DPP, I did a lot of work trying to get rid of the death penalty in various countries, and one was Malawi. We’d been in court in Zomba and had to get a plane in Lilongwe, about 200 miles away. We got a local taxi: the guy changed his wheels for the journey because the car wasn’t roadworthy and then hurtled at speed, mostly on the wrong side of the road. I’ve never been so terrified.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

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