Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
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What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
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What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
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What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
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Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
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.
I wanted to be like my dad, who was an academic, because he had an office packed full of books, always had loud music on, and seemed to get to do what he wanted.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 February 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 204 →A dress designer.
Adwoa Aboah
British fashion model
I wanted to be a cooker. Not a cook: I wanted to actually be the stove.
Joanna Scanlan
British actress and writer
An actor or a nun.
More from Lauren Laverne
View profile →It would have been lovely to have grown up in private like a lot of my friends.
My biggest disappointment is always myself. That’s my Catholic upbringing.
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.
I’d rather be enjoyed while I am still here.
The Strictly Come Dancing final almost destroyed me. I was howling all the way through – John and Johannes and then Rose and Giovanni. Oh my God.
A caravan. I was brought up going on caravan holidays – but we quickly realised that a double-axle caravan was too much of a commitment and sold it.
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Mark Bonnar, Jessica Brown Findlay, Billy Porter, Winston Churchill, Erin Doherty, Sharleen Spiteri
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