Now. I’ve moved to Hertfordshire after 25 years in London, got a fiancee and a dog, so everything has fallen into place.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 October 2022 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.
Now. I’ve moved to Hertfordshire after 25 years in London, got a fiancee and a dog, so everything has fallen into place.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 October 2022 source ↗
There are different flavours of happy, but I think my favourite is the quiet contentment when several generations of family are sitting together watching a crowd-pleaser like Harry Potter on the telly.
Sunday mornings with my parents when I visited from college.
I don’t think there’s a single moment. Every day that you wake up and your family is healthy and OK is a daily gratitude and happiness for me.
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.
Still biting my nails.
When I left Radio 1: full snotty sobbing on air.
Heights. For Children in Need, I had to abseil off the Orbit in the Olympic Park. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve done.
I went on a private jet with David Hasselhoff, and it was so turbulent between LA and Vegas I thought it was going down. I also thought: “The headline won’t be about me; it will be: David Hasselhoff and friend.”
I splash out on holidays and scented candles – I’ve got one that my fiancee won’t let me light, so it’s just for show.
Katy Perry. I hired a Russell Brand lookalike as a joke for the radio, and she thought it was actually him. When she realised it wasn’t, she burst into tears. She was still married to him, but I didn’t take into account that there were things going on that we didn’t know.
George Michael, Laverne Cox, Joshua Ferris, Liz Jones, Steve Buscemi, Ian McEwan
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