Jack Whitehall: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

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

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

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

Recorded Jack Whitehall said elsewhere, not written here

I was hellbent on being a Thunderbird. I was devastated when my parents finally told me it was a fictional organisation. Ruined my 18th.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 April 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Chris Hoy British track cyclist, 1994–2013

Scotland’s rugby captain. My hero Gavin Hastings was captain when he came to our school for a training session when I was 10 or 11. I met him and was blown away.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2018 source ↗

Chris Bryant

The Doctor in Doctor Who. I still do.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2025 source ↗

Paul O'Grady British comedian, actor and television presenter

To work in a dry cleaner’s.

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

Viv Albertine Australian-born British musician and writer

I had no female role models growing up. I lived an incredibly sheltered life: there was no TV at home and we had no visitors. It wasn’t until rock and pop came into my life that I concocted myself as a role model.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗