JS
Swimming down the Thames on a full moon night 10 years ago. It was dangerous, but extremely joyful.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 March 2018 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 577 →The first time I remember being truly happy was with my children on Ainsdale beach, not far from Southport. I spent £15 on butties, and we spent the whole day by the sea.
Robert Peston
British journalist
With my late wife, Siân Busby, and our boys, Max and Simon, on assorted Welsh and English beaches, in sunshine and rain – especially when there was a Punch and Judy show on the prom.
Nish Kumar
British stand-up comedian and presenter
Right now. I think I was born in my early 30s and I am finally catching up to my age. It’s fine to be a bit like Frasier now, but it’s probably not ideal when you are 12.
August 16, 1985. My dad took me and my brothers Andre and Tony to see the Fresh Fest at the Nassau Coliseum, on Long Island. We saw Whodini, the Fat Boys, and Grandmaster Flash. Greatest day of my life. The births of my children were big days, too, but billions of people have children—only 15,000 people saw that show.
More from Joanna Scanlan
View profile →Never getting back to a size 12.
The plastics episode of Blue Planet.
To my Latin teacher – I was very naughty.
Having someone to love.
At the BBC, in the old days, a piece of paper was sent to various households for them to report on what they’d watched that week. In my early 20s, I collated the data. It was deeply boring.
An actor or a nun.
More on time & hindsight
- What lesson has mattered most in your life? 138 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Toyah Willcox, Ted Danson, David Schwimmer, Sofia Coppola, Doris Day, Adrian Dunbar
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject