Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

I'm so thrilled to be talking to the brilliant David Mitchell, who's an incredible comedian,

actor, writer, television show creator, icon of British panel shows, an author of several books, but his

latest book, Unruly, The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens, is now out in

paperback. If you're a listener of this podcast, you will absolutely love this book. It's such a

phenomenal analysis, not only of the early kings and queens of England,

starting from before William I thought was a brilliant decision, but an analysis really of

what our historical understanding of those kings says about British culture and human culture

as a whole. David, thank you so much for joining me. No, not at all. Thank you for having me. Thank you for that lovely introduction.

So just to start, what inspired you to write a book about the British Monarchy?

Well, it was definitely partly the global pandemic in that I was sitting around doing nothing. And I sort of went through

a long period of frustration at all of the books and screenplays that everyone else seemed to be

using their time to write while I sat there and miserably refreshed the BBC news page in the

hope of some sign of an end to it all. And then finally, when there of some sign of an end to it all.

And then finally, when there was some sign of an end to it all, I found something to do,

which was to initially sit down and start typing about how the arrival of COVID

felt a bit like the arrival of the Vikings must have felt to the Anglo-Saxons,

as in it was just something that came out of the blue and was a real pain for everyone. It was, you know, literal and metaphorical

pain ensued. So I literally started typing that chapter. I think because of that,

you know, the weirdness of COVID and the suddenness,

do you do think more about history?

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