Alex Lawther: How close have you come to dying?

The question

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 said elsewhere, not written here

My failed driving test a few months ago. I got three majors and by the end of it the examiner couldn’t wait to get out of the car.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Russell Mael

Watching Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 May 2025 source ↗

Hamza Yassin

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.

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

Esther Freud

My parents died within four days of each other. I was engulfed as I ran from one bedside to another.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 July 2026 source ↗

Adrian Edmondson English actor, comedian, musician and writer

I hit a bit of lumpy tarmac driving my motorbike over the Pyrenees in the early 1980s. There was no safety barrier and I found myself riding along the edge of a precipice on half the width of the tyres for 100 yards.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗