The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?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.
A drummer in a famous band or an astronaut.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗
An actor. Then I grew out of that and became one by default. Or sort of one: “Not really an actor”, said Michael Billington.
An actor. I watched a lot of TV because we lived in the countryside and the weather was so bad.
A psychologist and then a diplomat.
I was born in Osaka, Japan. It was 45 years ago. My father has a small factory in Osaka, and we lived next to his factory
A nice long rest.
Working in a bottle factory, which lasted one day, and the Radio 1 breakfast show.
Heights, something happening to my children and Manchester United getting good again (I’m a Man City fan).
This was said about me in a Radio 1 focus group: “I don’t pay my licence fee to hear scummy northerners.”
A sense of what’s right, a few quid and some nice paintings.
When I changed the toner cartridge in my printer all on my own – that was a day of pure euphoria.
Ronnie Wood, Viv Albertine, Oti Mabuse, Adwoa Aboah, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Anna Friel
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