Every guest on the show answers a question left by the previous guest, and leaves a new one for the next. It’s how strangers meet each other before they even sit down in the same room. Here’s how the chain has unfolded so far.
“What's one thing you know you don't do particularly well?”
Keira's honest answer: internalising confidence. Despite her achievements — AAT Level 2 at 87%, shortlisted for AAT Apprentice of the Year, advisory council member — the imposter syndrome hasn't caught up with the CV yet.
“Who or what has been the biggest influence on your career, and why?”
Eleanor points to her grandmother — a quiet, steady influence whose example of hard work and care for community shaped how Eleanor approaches her own career.
“If you won the lottery and didn't have to work, would you carry on working?”
Yes — Millie's too active to sit still. She'd probably open a little coffee shop; something social, something people-facing, something with a standing desk.
“If you could pick someone else's job for a week, what would you pick?”
Fighter pilot — Mark's childhood dream was to join the Royal Air Force, but colour-blindness ruled it out.
“If you could stop what you're doing today and take up a hobby, what would that be?”
Walk the coastal path the whole way around the country — probably in sections, starting somewhere flat and undulating before tackling the harder, hillier bits.
“If kindness was a currency, how could you spend £10 today?”
Buy sweets for everyone in her household sitting exams — her daughter is about to start GCSEs — as a small kindness recognising how fantastic they're being at it.
“What piece of legislation would you change, if you could, and why?”
Implement a land value capture mechanism on all public projects. The Jubilee Line extension cost about £3 billion to build but generated roughly £13 billion of property-value uplift within a kilometre of each new station — captured entirely by existing landowners. Some of that value could be paid forward into other public projects. Not a new idea — Winston Churchill argued for it pre-Conservative-party days.
“If you could take one word from another language that really does heavy lifting in that language, and add it to English, what would that word be?”
Meraki — Greek, meaning 'finding joy in effort'. Jamie stumbled across the word on the side of a company that makes kitchen door handles, looked it up, and found a concept that English doesn't quite have a single word for: doing your work with soul and passion, and getting satisfaction from the effort itself rather than just from the outcome.
“What is the skill or attribute you have developed that you have benefited the most from?”
Tom gave a quietly serious answer: the ability to quickly and accurately complete forms. Half a joke about loving a bit of bureaucracy — he rates the 72-page Disability Living Allowance form as a work of art — and half a genuine point, because doing it well saves time, avoids rework, and brings a real sense of achievement.
“If you were going to bury treasure, what would you bury, and where would you bury it? It has to be real, proper treasure — not a photo of family or a 'the real treasure is in your heart' platitude.”
Fittingly for a keen fossil-hunter, Hannah would bury her late grandmother's jewellery and gold sovereigns — the things most precious to her. She'd hide them somewhere in her North Norfolk garden, and being who she is, she'd leave behind either an elaborate treasure map or a set of cryptic clues for whoever came looking.
“If you could go back in time and attend any event as an invisible bystander, where would you go and what would you see?”
She'd go back to August 1100 AD to witness the death of King William Rufus the Red — one of England's worst kings — in the New Forest. No one knows if it was regicide or a hunting accident. His brother Henry immediately dashed to Winchester to claim the royal treasury and became Henry I. Gale would love to know what really happened.
“If you could choose anyone, alive or dead, to be your mentor, who would you choose?”
Eleanor picks two. Within the sector, she names George Weiss — former technical director of the Audit Commission, now retired to Portugal — who is her actual mentor. Outside the sector, she'd choose David Attenborough, while he's still alive.
“What is your favourite season? And tell us why?”
Spring. James loves coming out of the winter doldrums and watching everything come back to life — as a dog walker he notices the lighter mornings, the plants and flowers returning, and the smell of fresh-cut grass.
“If you were playing rugby, what position would you play — and why?”
By his own admission Alex isn't built for the pitch — his instinct is the behind-the-scenes, data-and-coaching side, Moneyball-style. He points to James Kerr's book Legacy, on the culture of the All Blacks, and the idea that marginal gains and psychological safety matter as much as size and strength. If forced to pick a position, he'd take fullback, spotting the danger from the back.
“What's a place, an activity, or a person that makes you feel really safe and grounded — somewhere you can switch off from the world when things get hectic?”