Omid Djalili: How close have you come to dying?

The question

How close have you come to dying?

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.

Omid Djalili

British stand-up comedian and actor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I had spinal meningitis when I was 13.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗

Others on this question

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Andy Serkis English actor

I made a solo attempt at the Matterhorn in 1996 and came very close to falling. I waited until the dawn light came, so I could retrace my route, but I was hanging off my ice axes for 45 minutes.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2017 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 ↗

Noel Clarke English actor and filmmaker

A car crash in the Utah mountains in 2005. We were driving from Arizona to Salt Lake City to go to a basketball game and the car slipped on black ice and we skidded off the motorway, flipped over and rolled down a ravine. The police officer said it was the worst accident he’d seen in 18 years when nobody died.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 April 2021 source ↗

Sara Pascoe English comedian, presenter, writer

Ten years ago, I went to visit my dad in Australia. I walked to the edge of a cliff and looked over and tripped. I righted myself but my head was over the edge. No one saw it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 July 2018 source ↗