The question
What disappointment has stayed with you longest?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Not playing James Bond.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 August 2026 source ↗
I got dropped from two record deals when I was 14 and 17.
The Mona Lisa – I preferred the frame.
I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.
I was really disappointed not to be auditioned for Pride & Prejudice, but then they changed their minds and I got the part of Mrs Bennet.
As a perfectly decent bloke.
That’s the 64-million-dollar question.
Nothing at all.
When they don’t tell the truth.
My first wife, because I left her.
I was about six years old in a market square in Italy and my dad said, “Oh, those shorts would look perfect on you.” So he whipped my trousers off and I hadn’t got any knickers on.
Terry O'Neill, Arlene Phillips, Pauline McLynn, Jake Shears, Adam Clayton, Tom Ellis
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