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David Mitchell
Represented by: Ivan Mulcahy
David Mitchell grew up in Oxford. He was miserable at a Dickensian primary school but happy at Cambridge, where he was president of Footlights and met his comedy partner Robert Webb. Together they have starred in the BAFTA-winning series That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show, Ambassadors and Back.
Mitchell has been a team captain on BBC One’s ever popular Would I Lie To You for seventeen series, he has also presented Outsiders for UKTV, Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live, hosts Radio 4’s The Unbelievable Truth and has appeared on almost every British TV or radio panel show. In 2016, David starred as William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s comedy series Upstart Crow across three series for BBC Two. In 2024 David launched a new series for BBC One starring as Ludwig in the series of the same name. That series opened to 10m viewers and became the most popular scripted comedy or drama series launch of the year for the BBC. It was immediately recommissioned for a second series.
David’s memoir Back Story (HarperCollins) was released in 2013 to much critical acclaim. His second book Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (Guardian Faber) was published in November 2014, followed by Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy (Guardian Faber) in 2020. These are both a collection of David’s weekly Observer columns, bringing light to the darkness in these dumbfounding times. In 2024 David’s History book Unruly, published by Michael Joseph (Penguin) instantly shot to No.1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List and Amazon charts where it remained for many weeks.
David’s voice is, of course, very recognisable across a range of work and he recently brought the character of GooGoo to life in the hugely successful Universal Pictures/Illumination feature film Migration.
He has been nominated for, and won, many awards, most notably scooping BAFTA Awards for That Mitchell & Webb Look and Peep Show.
Represented by: Ivan Mulcahy
David Mitchell grew up in Oxford. He was miserable at a Dickensian primary school but happy at Cambridge, where he was president of Footlights and met his comedy partner Robert Webb. Together they have starred in the BAFTA-winning series That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show, Ambassadors and Back.
Mitchell has been a team captain on BBC One’s ever popular Would I Lie To You for seventeen series, he has also presented Outsiders for UKTV, Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live, hosts Radio 4’s The Unbelievable Truth and has appeared on almost every British TV or radio panel show. In 2016, David starred as William Shakespeare in Ben Elton’s comedy series Upstart Crow across three series for BBC Two. In 2024 David launched a new series for BBC One starring as Ludwig in the series of the same name. That series opened to 10m viewers and became the most popular scripted comedy or drama series launch of the year for the BBC. It was immediately recommissioned for a second series.
David’s memoir Back Story (HarperCollins) was released in 2013 to much critical acclaim. His second book Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (Guardian Faber) was published in November 2014, followed by Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy (Guardian Faber) in 2020. These are both a collection of David’s weekly Observer columns, bringing light to the darkness in these dumbfounding times. In 2024 David’s History book Unruly, published by Michael Joseph (Penguin) instantly shot to No.1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List and Amazon charts where it remained for many weeks.
David’s voice is, of course, very recognisable across a range of work and he recently brought the character of GooGoo to life in the hugely successful Universal Pictures/Illumination feature film Migration.
He has been nominated for, and won, many awards, most notably scooping BAFTA Awards for That Mitchell & Webb Look and Peep Show.
Published Works
Author: David Mitchell
Genres: Non-fiction, History
THE UK SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
Think you know your kings and queens? Think again.
In UNRULY, David Mitchell explores how England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky sods who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.
Taking us right back to King Arthur (spoiler: he didn't exist), David tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (spoiler: she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the population evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.
How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.
A funny book about a serious subject, UNRULY is for anyone who has ever wondered how we got here - and who is to blame.
“Just fantastic. Delightfully contrary and hilariously cantankerous. Very, very funny.”
- Jesse Armstrong, Creator of Succession and Peep Show“Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp... Here is HORRIBLE HISTORIES for grownups.”
- The Times“I don’t think anyone other than David Mitchell could have written this book. It’s clever, funny and makes you think quite differently about history we thought we knew.”
- Dan Snow, Historian and Broadcaster“This book is like history written on LSD... Gloriously bizarre... Refreshingly raw.”
- Gerard DeGroot, The Times“A very enjoyable, rollicking read.”
- Hadley Freeman in The Sunday Times.
Author: David Mitchell
Genres: Memoir
What's wrong with calling a burglar brave? Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing? Why do the asterisks in that sentence make it okay? Why do so many people want to stop other people doing things, and how can they be stopped from stopping them? Why is every film and TV programme a sequel or a remake? Why are we so reliant on perpetual diversion that someone has created chocolate toothpaste? Is there anything to be done about the Internet?
These and many other questions trouble David Mitchell as he delights us with a tour of the absurdities of modern life - from Ryanair to Downton Abbey, sports day to smoking, nuclear weapons to phone etiquette, UKIP to hotdogs made of cats. Funny, provocative and shot through with refreshing amounts of common sense, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse celebrates and commiserates on the state of things in our not entirely glorious nation.
Authors: David Mitchell & Robert Webb
Genre: Non-Fiction
Dive into the bizarre yet strangely familiar world of Mitchell and Webb – the wittiest men on television, or anywhere else. From the two finest comedians of their generation comes the ultimate Christmas comedy book – lavishly illustrated in colour, containing all sorts of outrageous stuff that will have you laughing into the spring and beyond. David Mitchell and Robert Webb have been hard at work cramming all the comic genius that marked their award-winning TV and radio shows into one very beautiful and very funny hardback book. Ted the snooker commentator’s Hello Magazine photo shoot will be unveiled for the very first time, and expect guest appearances from Dr Jonathan Miller and CSI’s David Caruso. David and Rob have also unearthed Hitler’s lost text messages and some notes Peter Mandelson left on his fridge. They will offer tips on surviving the credit crunch for all those that need them. Expect a board game put together by Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar, a guide to the cheeses of Saudi Arabia, and news of the ever-expanding range of Mitchell and Webb products. This Mitchell and Webb book will be supported by a frankly enormous marketing budget and stunning publicity everywhere. This will be the best comedy book for a long time, not least because David and Robert have put every page together themselves.
“This Mitchell And Webb Book has been constructed with the same care and attention that you find in their TV work, with the duo having produced a deliciously texty book packed with the same kind of slick, idea-rich comic prose that you find in Mitchell's Observer column.”
- The Guardian
Author: David Mitchell
Genre: Non-Fiction
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
“Mitchell's trademark dry, intelligent humour translates well... If you like Mitchell on television, you will like him in this book.”
- Shortlist“David Mitchell's Back Story contains a string of observations that are as funny as they are thoughtfully composed.”
- Metro
Author: David Mitchell
Genres: Non-Fiction
David Mitchell’s 2014 bestseller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think – because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.
But if you’re determined to give it a go, you might enjoy this eclectic collection (or eclection) of David Mitchell’s attempts to make light of all that darkness. Scampi, politics, the Olympics, terrorism, exercise, rude street names, inheritance tax, salad cream, proportional representation and farts are all touched upon by Mitchell’s unremitting laser of chit-chat, as he negotiates a path between the commercialisation of Christmas and the true spirit of Halloween. Read this book and slightly change your life!