Elaine Paige
English singer and actress
Maybe That’s Your Problem, a musical about premature ejaculation. It closed after only 18 performances.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
In a Dagenham factory at 6am, picking soldiers’ greatcoats from wars around the world to sell at the market in Chelsea. I smelled like mothballs, and no one would come near me.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 June 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Jodie Whittaker
English actress
Working in a soap factory in Huddersfield. I was in my late teens, so I was basically hungover every day.
Alison Steadman
British actress
Washing dishes when I was a student.
Cold call market research at uni.
More from Arlene Phillips
View profile →I play Classic FM in the car – emotional music brings me to tears thinking about people I’ve loved and lost.
Kind, thoughtful and gave damn good advice.
In school, I was 11, and we had to paint a picture of family life. My painting was held up to the class and I was told it looked like a spider with ink on its feet had walked across the page. It was done so viciously – humiliating.
Life is never fair.
Loving, creative, demanding.
Like you’ve got hot-water bottles all over you.
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