Gogglebox Forever!

After a long day, it is lovely to relax in front of the TV with my family.

Hmmm! Did I say ‘relax’?

There are five of us living under our roof, with occasional ‘extras’, each with their own idea of what constitutes good family entertainment.

When there was only my husband and I to consider, we used to watch challenging films and tune into interesting documentaries. These days we are more likely to sit through American soaps and endless reality TV shows. Left to our own devices, we would enjoy more cerebral viewing, or so I believed until my husband developed a liking for Lizard Lick Towing (and I thought TOWIE was bad!).

We all have own peculiar TV watching habits. Lilly and her boyfriend chatter… incessantly… through absolutely everything, whilst munching loudly on popcorn. My son prefers to lay in front of the TV on his duvet, which leads to angry choruses of ‘get down, we can’t see’ every time he adjusts his position. Personally, I find a large glass of wine makes most things more palatable.

When she visits, my mother-in-law is an expert at the ‘isn’t that whatshisname who played thingumybob’ in that cop drama… you know the one with that actor who was married to that actress’ type of comment.

Then, when the family is finally settled comfortably, hubbie inevitably decides to play two handed remote. This involves frequent adjustment of the settings; too quiet, too LOUD, and usually ends in him redesigning the lounge so that the speakers are in the best position to appreciate the soundtrack. I imagine that we are also the only family in England who has to watch the end credits to find out who sung what song.  

Of course, we have our family favourites; programmes that we will all happily sit down to watch without complaint such as The Big Bang Theory and we are currently working our way through box sets of Supernatural series 1-8 (we each have our reasons!).  

Most recently, we have become hooked on Gogglebox, a fly-on-the wall documentary following the reactions of the viewing public to the programmes that we ourselves watch on TV. Phew! Watching them squabble, adjust their sets, shout at the TV and eat their way through mountains of takeaway food, makes me realise we’re not so unusual after all.