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William Hanson

William Hanson

English author

Oct 15, 2026

21:31
call it Marquess of Queens,
21:35
but it was there.
21:36
But it was fun.
21:39
I don't know whether they'll keep this in because the course is launching soon and I'm yet to see it all edited.
21:44
There's a bit where we're watching Titanic and it's the dinner scene where you've got Cal and Ruth and Rose and Leonardo and Jack And I've just come out of the West End doing a stint as Ruth de Witbikator in Titanic.
22:02
Yes, you were in Titanic! And I realised half of my script's from the film.
22:07
And I went, oh, I really, really, really should have watched the film again before I went into it, because that's why that line makes sense.

9 MINS LATER

31:43
from you posting these etiquette tips, in addition to your podcast, obviously, but the younger generation suddenly sort of craving this content.
6:51
She was
6:51
gorgeous and we really warmed to her.
6:54
And my father, as he was handing it back one day, said, well, if you ever don't want her, let us know.
6:59
And about four months later, they phoned up and went, we don't want her.
7:03
Which is unfortunate when you've got three other dogs and they kept them.
7:07
Dido is the most gorgeous thing.
7:09
And...

23 MINS LATER

30:00
Which is a good
3:26
William's friend knows that they owe him money.
3:29
It's almost got to the sort of, the, the sort of fairly amusing point now, where I think they know what they're doing, but w- literally, I mean, actually, literally it was an hour ago I was having this conversation with, with this person, and you're like, "Just take your phone out now and do it.
3:41
Y- you can literally just do it now.
3:43
It's so, so easy."
8:27
He uses a fictional person named Alex to illustrate this example.
8:31
I probably would take Alex, the friend, to one side and say, "Just so you know, um, when it comes to paying the tab tonight, I'm respectfully not going to pay yours whilst you still owe me.
8:42
In future, I'm happy to do it, but I'm not gonna be paying yours tonight."
CooperHOST
29:03
Am I right in thinking, was there some sort of controversy online about eating cereal with a spoon and or a
29:10
fork? Yes.
29:11
Well, I suggested, and I'm just having a wild moment, but I mean, I don't really eat cereal very often.
29:18
I think there are better things than breakfast.
29:20
But I suggested, because same as with a pudding, you correctly would use a fork and a spoon, because if you've got a sticky top of pudding or something, come the end of it, you have to then use your finger to shove it onto the spoon, and you don't really want to use your fingers in dining.
29:35
And so I thought when I was doing this sort of corn flakes video, we'll use a spoon and a fork because then you can push the corn flakes onto your spoon.
29:45
And I think it just sort of is a way to elevate your morning meal.
UnaHOST
33:43
If they've come to my house via a field,
CooperHOST
1:09
Am I right in thinking, was there some sort of controversy online about eating cereal with a spoon and or a
1:15
fork? Yes.
1:17
Well, I suggested, and I was just having a wild moment, but I mean, I don't really eat cereal very often.
1:24
I think there are better things than breakfast.
1:26
But I suggested, because same as with the puddings, you correctly would use a fork and a spoon because if you've got to stick it up a pudding or something, come the end of it, you have to then use your finger to shove it onto the spoon and you don't really want to use your fingers in dining.
1:41
And so I thought when I was doing this sort of cornflakes video, we'll use a spoon and a fork because then you can push the cornflakes onto your spoon.
1:51
And I think it just sort of is a way to elevate your morning meal.
UnaHOST
5:49
If they've come to my house via a field, please take them off.
MikeyHOST
35:52
them, are you, if they've been preparing food?
35:56
Yeah, I might have been doing Spotted Dick all afternoon.
35:58
And if you then turn up with something, it's a pudding that we have here.
36:02
Oh, right, right.
36:04
Yeah.
36:05
And you have meat pies, for God's sake.
36:07
You're in no position to judge other countries' cuisine.
MikeyHOST
37:19
What is that one all about, by the way?
MikeyHOST
2:22
What is something incredibly rude someone could do?
2:27
I think, well, I think on any sort of date, not asking questions about the other person.
2:30
You're there.
2:31
It's not an interview per se, but you want to be interested in them.
2:34
You don't just talk about yourself.
2:36
You should ask questions about them.
2:37
They should ask questions about you.

8 MINS LATER

MikeyHOST
10:26
them, are you, if they've been preparing food?
62:26
[laughs]
62:26
"So the advice I'm after is what should you do when you get, uh, that really piece of chewy meat during a meal in a restaurant or at someone else's house? Should you just swallow it down or discreetly spit it out and leave it on the side of the plate? Help appreciated."
65:16
[laughs] Yes.
65:18
Um, generally if you...
65:20
Things like gristle, fish bones, bones, meat bones, you can't swallow them, so you are gonna have to remove it from your mouth.
65:26
So I would spit it into your dominant hand.
65:28
Use your non-dominant hand to shield, and then place it on the side of the plate.
speaker_6UNKNOWN
40:33
Okay.
40:34
"Hi, boys.
40:34
I work in a secondary school, and one morning I'm walking into work, coffee in hand, when I pass a group of year 10 lads huddled together, looking deeply suspicious.
40:41
You know the look, the kind that screams we are absolutely making terrible choices right now.
40:46
But it was before work hours, and quite frankly, I wasn't being paid enough at 8:00 AM to investigate.
40:50
Fast-forward later that day when the gossip mill starts turning.
40:52
Turns out one of these lads had let his mate shave his head in school.

8 MINS LATER

49:12
Prosecco.
14:50
[laughs]
14:51
Um, so yeah, no, she has.
14:54
He's sort of shortened the state banquets a little bit.
14:55
He's, there used to be, like, the des- what was called the dessert course.
14:58
Now that was fruit.
14:59
It's not pudding.
14:59
There was pudding, and then there was dessert, which is a, dessert, fruit de dessert, which was literally a piece of fruit that you would cut with cutlery.

7 MINS LATER

22:04
And then no one really made new ones, and you're now kind of revolutionizing, modernizing.
8:10
Yeah, same with me.
8:11
Yeah, but he was...
8:11
He'd only...
8:12
He, he was basically a couple of years ahead of me, and then he, he, th- he, he graduated, then came straight back to be here 'cause he's that good.
8:18
And then I didn't see him again for years.
8:20
And then when me and Rosie first started going out, one of the first places we went together was Ashley, Rosie's...
8:26
One of b- one of Rosie's best mates when she was a kid.

32 MINS LATER

speaker_8UNKNOWN
40:09
I get it
21:19
Why do we have to do that?
21:20
Yeah, so sort of at the start of the Georgian period of history in Britain, so George I, it was all men down one side, all women down the other side of the table.
21:30
And you didn't have the concept of dating, as we have now, and courtship.
21:35
And so as life began to progress, they thought, well, actually, let's sort of alternate the genders.
21:40
Obviously, it was Georgian England, and they assumed that there were just two genders, which we can unpick that another time, but just we're going with what they believed.
21:48
So it was this boy-girl-boy-girl which I think is probably preferable to all men down one side, all women down another.
21:55
And the etiquette was that if you were married, you were actually seated apart from each other, not drastically far apart, just a little bit.

20 MINS LATER

42:11
Tell me the story of Daphne and why her thank you notes were so powerful.
20:25
Why do we have to do that?
20:26
Yeah, so sort of at the start of the Georgian period of history in Britain, so George I, it was all men down one side, all women down the other side of the table, and you didn't have the concept of dating as we have now, and courtship.
20:41
And so as life began to progress, they thought, "Well, actually, it, let's sort of alternate the genders." Obviously, it was Georgian England, and they assumed that there were just two genders, which we can unpick that another time, but just we're going with what they believed.
20:55
So it was this boy, girl, boy, girl, which I think is probably preferable to all men down one side, all women down another.
21:02
And the etiquette was that if you were married, you were actually seated apart from each other.
21:06
Not drastically far apart, just a little bit, so you can talk to other people, 'cause you, you do live with them, so you might want a bit of a, a change, as much as we love our spouses.
21:15
If you were engaged, if we look at Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, you know, they, they weren't going off to the cinema and sitting in a, in an olive garden having a nice get-to-know-you dinner.

8 MINS LATER

29:52
Um, any advice there of how you can kind of be minimum about the etiquette stuff and, like, the table settings and the fanciness, but still kind of get the social connection in, and still get the hospitality into it?

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