Louis Walsh
Irish music manager and television personality
I’m always happy. Ask Simon Cowell: he says if I had a tail, I’d wag it.
When were you happiest?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
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.
This is going to horribly upset my wife, my children and my grandchildren, but it was when I did The Greatest Snowman last year for Channel 4. Being let loose on an Austrian mountainside to build snow sculptures was my happy point, and who knew I’d find an icy G-spot at nearly 58.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
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Mike Skinner
English rapper
When I was a child and I got a new toy.
Robert Bathurst
English theatre and television actor
When I turned 30, married and had a place in Brixton. My flailing twenties were over, though the flailing continues.
When George, Shirlie [the Wham! backing singer, whom Ridgeley dated] and I were knocking about as teenagers.
More from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
View profile →Other people’s decorating, if I feel they’ve missed an opportunity and just decorated in that wet-cardboard, modern-grey thing. That’s a life not properly lived.
The missus. She is the glamour mamma mia at the top of our feudal pyramid. We all live together, so she’s a full-time grandmother and rules the roost. How she steered us through lockdown was extraordinary.
My wife. I am a lavish present-giver. I love worshipping my wife with beautiful bits and pieces – it is one of my greatest pleasures.
I am crucified by my modesty: it’s terrible.
I was nearly hit by an enormous gold-fibreglass cherub in a shopping centre. It fell five storeys and smashed into a thousand pieces about 4ft away from me.
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