David Mitchell: Back Story

About the book

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life. As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details: the singular, pitbull-infested charm of the FRP ('Flat Roofed Pub') the curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink the pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds the satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide how doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica trying to pretend he isn't a total **** at Robert Webb's wedding that he has fallen in love at LOT, but rarely done anything about it why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday that he's not David Mitchell the novelist. Despite what David Miliband might think

Reviews

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Quotes

'One of the best celebrity memoirs of last year...his outsider geek personality translates just as well on the page as it does on TV.' Metro 'It livened up about half way through with the appearance of me. But enough of David's life. The book is wonderful from beginning to end.' Robert Webb 'David Mitchell is an extremely funny man on screen, in person, in print and very probably underwater.' Sam Bain, co-writer of Peep Show 'He can write' Evening Standard 'Fluent, discursive, intelligent.' Evening Standard 'If you like Mitchell on television, you will like him in this book.' Shortlist

David Mitchell Biography

David Mitchell has been writing and performing comedy since his schooldays, when he and his friends would pen pages of sketches, though never put on a show. He studied History at Peterhouse, Cambridge; joined Footlights and soon became President of the society. It was there that he met Robert Webb. After graduation, Mitchell and Webb staged a number of two-man shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before becoming freelance writers, contributing to comedy shows such as The Armstrong and Miller Show and Big Train. They acquired a growing following after writing and starring in Bruiser and That Mitchell and Webb Situation, and in 2003 they got their own BBC Radio 4 series, That Mitchell and Webb Sound. The second series was broadcast in 2005, and the show transferred to television as That Mitchell and Webb Look the following year. The duo also starred in the award-winning Channel 4 series Peep Show and the acclaimed BBC Two comedy Ambassadors, as well as appearing in The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff. In 2007, they starred in the film Magicians, and in 2009 they published This Mitchell and Webb Book. David's solo projects include guesting on panel games such as Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week and QI; co-presenting 10 O'Clock Live and writing an autobiography, Back Story (2012), and a collection of journalism, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (2014). Robert Webb grew up in Lincolnshire and studied English at Robinson College, Cambridge. He met David Mitchell when they both became members of Footlights, and from then on they collaborated in a number of comedy shows. Their first appearance as a duo was on Comedy Nation. They then wrote and appeared in their own show, That Mitchell and Webb Situation for satellite channel Play UK, before starring in two series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound on BBC Radio 4, four series of the BAFTA-winning That Mitchell and Webb Look on BBC Two, and nine series of the Golden Rose award-winner Peep Show. Robert's individual projects include starring in the 2006 film Confetti; winning Let's Dance for Comic Relief in 2009; playing Dan in the Channel 4 series Fresh Meat and acting as team captain on the BBC panel show Argumental. Various ... Read full biography