David Mitchell: Back Story (46 page)

Jeffrey Bernard is 21.

Outside my parents’ house when Footlights came to Oxford to do a gig at the Playhouse. From left: Nick Nurock, me, Phil Radden, Robert Webb (seated), Matthew Holness, Jon Taylor (seated), Charles Dean, Tom Hilton, Charlie Hartill (seated), James Bachman, Claire Taylor and Sarah Moule. Not all of these people have now gone bald.

At the Footlights garden party: John Oliver, Des O’Connor (sic), Richard Ayoade and me. I am trying to pre-empt accusations of elitism by holding a champagne bottle, wearing a T-shirt with a Latin motto on it and pulling that face.

With Collie, backstage on tour with
The Miser
(as we called the production manager). Seconds later, I was to place my entire head inside that shoe.

Swiss College, Cambridge, has since been demolished.

Collie, backstage at the Comedy Awards. Or was it during a
Peep Show
shoot? I forget.

Only an anarchist would buy pants anywhere else.

Mark and Jeremy are throwing a party.

‘I find these inexplicable delays intensely depressing.’ Waiting around with Matt King, who plays Super Hans.

That Mitchell and Webb Look

Dawn of the Bronze Age.

Due to BBC cuts, Rob and I are forced to share a dress.

Rob and I are disconcerted to be photographed during what we call ‘the process’. (The man sitting down is Simon Kane, who wrote the sketch we’re about to perform. It is about the Romans.)

Context is all.