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.
1 March 1991, when I got back on the stage almost a year after a road accident in our tour bus. I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest. That was euphoric.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 June 2019 source ↗
I have never been happier than I am now. As for when I was happiest in my work, playing King Arthur in Spamalot in the West End.
The morning after the opening of Hamlet in New York in 2000. The reviews were good and I actually punched the air – a very un-Simon Russell Beale thing to do.
Escaping an abusive teen marriage and being blessed with the opportunity to create a new life for myself and my two young children in London at the height of the swinging 60s.
Every morning when I go into our three-year-old’s room. He’s so happy to see you, it’s a moment of heaven.
My life is wonderful – I can’t ask for one more thing.
I’ve only done two and loved them both – one in the band, and the other as an interpreter in customs.
When I feel that I am unprepared. Before a show I always have nightmares that I go out on stage naked.
Comforting, solid, unconditional, a drug.
A psychologist and then a diplomat.
Being able to communicate with people all over the world through my music.
Carl Barât, Philip Glass, Alexander Armstrong, Matt Goss, Tim Minchin, Paul Weller
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