Behaving Ourselves [files not found]

NOTE: The MP3 files used by this podcast appear to be missing. They may have been removed permanently from their source location. In a four-part series, David Mitchell investigates the confusing world of manners. Essentially, the history of British manners is that very posh people made up the rules (or, to be strictly accurate, they stole a copy from Versailles). And then a few decades ago they decided they were bored with the whole thing and wandered off. So now, posh people...

NOTE: The MP3 files used by this podcast appear to be missing. They may have been removed permanently from their source location. In a four-part series, David Mitchell investigates the confusing world of manners. Essentially, the history of British manners is that very posh people made up the rules (or, to be strictly accurate, they stole a copy from Versailles). And then a few decades ago they decided they were bored with the whole thing and wandered off. So now, posh people don’t care, and the rest of us are just confused. The legacy of British costume drama is that the rest of the world continues to regard Britain as a museum of manners. First time visitors arrive expecting an etiquette list stapled to the back of their immigration form. This is why the coming of the internet was such a disaster – everyone now uses it to blurt out what they really think (as if anyone cares). In real life, we don’t tell colleagues that they’re incompetent, friends that their cake is terrible, or partners that we don’t care if we never dance with them again. That’s why we have reality TV. Alan Sugar, Paul Hollywood, Craig Revel Horwood – that’s the point. We thrill to bad manners on television.