Hamza Yassin: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

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

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded Hamza Yassin said elsewhere, not written here

Being about nine metres away from a polar bear. In northern Canada, a young polar bear was very intrigued by our food. I was flying the drone at the time and the polar bear looked up and started paying attention, so then we flew the drone further away and he followed it while we got into our vehicles.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 September 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 210 →

Julia Ormond English actress

A trip to a Macedonian refugee camp that I switched out of, to go at a later date. Those who took my place were killed in a horrific car accident.

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

Suzanne Vega American singer-songwriter

A death threat at Glastonbury festival in 1989. The police told me not to go on, but I said I had to because I was headlining. So I wore a bullet-proof vest. It seemed unlikely that I would be assassinated, but it was shocking and very stressful.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2017 source ↗

Brendan Gleeson Irish actor and director

Getting knocked down by a bus. The experience left me with the exhilaration of life enhanced.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 December 2016 source ↗

Liam Gallagher English singer-songwriter

When I was about seven or eight years old, I was messing about in a brook with my brothers and a friend of mine, Paul Hewitt, and I almost drowned. Paul saved me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2017 source ↗