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Extract: Unruly by David Mitchell

David Mitchell on Manners

Behaving Ourselves

David Mitchell investigates the confusing world of manners.

David Mitchell sets out on a vigorous but impeccably polite investigation into the confusing world of manners. Are they really in decline, as many would have us believe? Or are we just throwing off the shackles of the Victorian obsession with etiquette? 
 
Over the course of the series, David eats his lunchtime sandwiches with children in a primary school, and later goes to a street market to see manners - good and bad - in action. He explores where our manners come from with Professors Steven Pinker from Harvard University and the author Henry Hitchings. What do we mean by 'civility' and 'good manners' in public places? Why are people still pinching vicars' bottoms, and what can the state do to improve standards of public behaviour? And, David asks, how is the digital age changing our sense of public space? 
 
Produced by Chris Ledgard.

David Mitchell

David Mitchell investigates how the humble meeting took over the world - and what we should do about it 
 
In this fantastic follow-up to Behaving Ourselves: David Mitchell on Manners, the comedian and columnist turns his attention to meetings, examining our love/hate relationship with them and asking how we evolved from getting together for a 'thing' to shouting at each other onscreen via Zoom. 
 
On the agenda: David talks to fellow comedian Russell Kane about the different ways introverts and extroverts behave in meetings; meets Dutch sociologist Wilbert van Vree to sum up several millennia of meetings - from hunter-gatherers, to the Middle Ages, to the modern-day office; and gets some tips from executive coach Sophie Bryan about being a good chairman (and dealing with the awkward person in the room). 
 
Exploring how our meetings culture is spinning out of control, David sits in on a council Zoom meeting in Cheshire (not that one); picks the brains of Imperial College Business School meetings expert Sankalp Chaturvedi, and chats to the former Leader of the House of Commons, Sir David Lidington, about Cabinet briefings and ministerial meetings. And, joining historian and author Professor Margaret Macmillan, he tackles one of the 20th Century's biggest meetings, the 1919 Paris Conference, discovering that there's nothing new about management away-days or brainstorming sessions - they were both being used 100 years ago. 
 
As he learns the secrets of communication, consensus, and coming together productively, can David overcome his scepticism and learn to love meetings? 
 
 
Production credits 
Written and presented by David Mitchell 
With Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden; Cat Brogan; Wilbert van Vree; Russell Kane; Sophie Bryan; Councillor Gill Merry; Councillor Kathryn Flavell; Councillor Laura Crane; Sir David Lidington; Sankalp Chaturvedi; Professor Margaret Macmillan 
Produced by Chris Ledgard 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13-27 March 2021 
 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

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