Mad Hatter: Sonya Lennon

Who would be the last person you would invite to your birthday party?

Any shallow, mean, self-obsessed minor celebrity with no body of work. You choose.

Who would be the first person you would invite to your birthday party?

My family – which I know is not what you want, so I’ll also give you Prince, because you never specified living.

Favourite saying?

Ah well. Having just read How Women Rise by Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen, any minor annoying shit that goes down, just say, ‘Ah well’. And move on.

Favourite record?

This question is so binary, it assumes that my musical needs are singular. I’m going to say Laura Marling’s Ghosts, as it’s one that I can only listen to on my own, and it unfolds like a novel.

Favourite book?

Again. But here we go. I just finished The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver – my husband’s now concerned about my right-wing leanings by association. I’m not right-wing, but it’s a bloody brilliant novel.

Favourite film?

The Graduate, it speaks so much to the naivety of youth, the glamour of our fantasies, and the misguided nature of our perceived desires.

Favourite author?

Philip Roth, love me a great American novel.

Favourite actor/actress?

Having seen Sam Rockwell in Vice and Three Billboards, I think I could just pull up a pew and watch him all day.

Favourite musician?

Questlove.

Most embarrassing moment of your life?

I’ve had loads – what can I say, it was the ’90s.

Favourite food/drink/stimulant?

I love tequila with grapefruit juice – in fact, it’s like a ritual drink with my girls.

TV programme?

At the moment Strictly Business of course, starring me!

Favourite TV personality?

Bridget & Eamon – can I say them?

Favourite item of clothing?

I’m going to say my new Nigel O’Reilly ring, a present to myself for my 50th birthday.

Most desirable date?

Is that a who or what question?

Favourite method of relaxation?

Two weeks ago myself and a friend went to The Greenhouse Project in Dun Laoghaire for a facial and massage. I actually fell fast asleep in the relaxation room for two hours after the treatments – divine. Alternatively, let me march down the South Wall and I will feel no pain.

If you weren’t pursuing your present career, what other career might you have chosen?

I’d quite like to have been a racing driver.

Biggest thrill?

Funnily enough, racing around the Nurburgring in Germany in an Audi R8. Thank you very much.

Your concept of heaven?

Sitting in a beach shack, with my bare feet in sand, eating chips and a tomato salad, with a cold beer – having been buffeted around for the morning by crazy big waves, under a searing blue sky.

Your concept of hell?

Having to clock in and out.

What would be your dying words?

Just one more.

Greatest ambition?

To be curious and engaged until I die a sudden death at the age of 118, having served two terms as President.

Period of history you’d most like to have lived in and why?

The roaring ’20s – great clothes, great parties and humankind’s new dawn.

If you weren’t a human being which animal would you have chosen to be?

An elephant.

If you were told that the world was ending tomorrow morning, how would you react/what would you do?

Ask everyone round for a party.

Your nominee for the world’s best-dressed person?

Tilda Swinton.

Favourite term of abuse?

Sake.

Biggest fear?

Getting dementia like my gorgeous Mum.

Humanity’s most useful invention?

A wooden handheld lemon squeezer.

Humanity’s most useless invention?

A banana slicer.

Sonya Lennon presents Strictly Business, Wednesdays on RTÉ One at 7.30pm.