Table manners

In the episode of 'Wycliff' which we watched yesterday evening, I was both irritated and puzzled by the director making a big deal of the poor table manners of the bearded policeman, this while he and the rest of the team were holed up in some small hotel in the wilds of Cornwall.

Poor table manners which had no connection or relevance to the murder story at hand. Yet another, as it happens, involving a dodgy priest and an even more dodgy sister. While I was just irritated at this display being included in my evening's entertainment: murder yes, dripping egg on one's newspaper no.

Why did the director think that his audience needed to be reminded in this way of the importance of table manners if we are to get along with each other? Had he overdosed on Lévi-Strauss?

PS: an identical copy of the book snapped above sits, largely unread, on a bookshelf here at Epsom. But mine doesn't have 'first edition' stamped on it in white.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/04/on-disgust.html. A recent post on a closely related topic.