Roger McGough: As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

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.

Roger McGough

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Martin Freeman English actor

I wanted to be a footballer and then a squash player – I was in with a chance because I was very good. But I fell out of love with that by 14 or 15 and joined a youth theatre.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 January 2019 source ↗

Dominic West English actor

I wanted to race cars.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 December 2018 source ↗

Terry O'Neill British photographer

A jazz drummer.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2017 source ↗

Gregg Wallace English broadcaster and writer

A sailor. I wanted to be in the Royal Navy like my grandad.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 April 2022 source ↗

More from Roger McGough

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Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

Losing track (see above).

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗