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Working 9 to 5

Episode 3 of 5

Novelist and critic Ian Sansom considers the changing concept of the average working week in an age of zero hours contracts.

Novelist and critic Ian Sansom believes that the idea of the average is one of the key terms and principles of the modern age, encompassing human productivity, relationships, politics and art. So, how did average become a byword for mediocrity?

In the third essay of the series, he explores the changing concept of the average working week in an age of zero hours contracts. Is the idea of an average working week now as redundant and old-fashioned as the idea of the tea-drinking, bowler-hatted man on the Clapham omnibus, with his 2.4 children living comfortably in suburbia, in a nation of cheeky-chappie shopkeepers?

Producer: Stan Ferguson.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Wed 30 Sep 2015 22:45

Broadcast

  • Wed 30 Sep 2015 22:45

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