*This post is in collaboration with TV Licensing (a trademark of the BBC), but all thoughts and experiences are my own.
In our home, and I'm sure in many up and down the country, the living room and the TV are the hub of the house. It's the spot where we gather together to unwind and de-stress after long and busy days, share some quality time and be entertained by our favourite shows and films on TV. With a wide range of ages between our children (our eldest is 12 and our youngest is 2), we watch a lot of different programmes and films as a family to accommodate everyone's interests. I was invited to take part in the BBC TV Licensing Rest & Connect Campaign and am happy to get a chance to share my own family's experiences (and indeed my own) surrounding TV.
Watching TV is not just something to pass the time: it's a form of self-care and a way to discover new topics of interest and even more information on the things we're interested in.
I remember, as a child, my grandparents' whole evening being centred around their favourite TV shows - from the soaps to The Bill. Even when we were on holiday, they still wanted their routine with their favourite TV programmes and now, as an adult, I totally get it. Watching TV gives us the opportunity to rest from the busyness of our days for a little while and allows us to get lost in the plot of a great film or programme or broaden our horizons with an insightful documentary.
Here are some of our favourite TV memories that allow us to rest and connect together.
Bonding With Our Babies Through TV
Since our boys were babies, CBeebies has been a staple in our house. It was always part of their bedtime routine and we loved all the programmes, especially Me Too!, Grandpa in My Pocket, Balamory and In the Night Garden, to name a few. Gathering around the TV with the boys and watching their favourite programmes allowed them to learn, be entertained, have fun and discover characters which they grew to love. I still quote things from these programmes to my eldest son and they're some treasured moments of ours - all stemming from our TV time.
Some of these programmes no longer exist on CBeebies, so we watch the older programmes now with our youngest via YouTube.
Catching Up on BBC iPlayer
With my love of TikTok, every day I'm finding programmes to watch, which may have been around for some time now, but which I wasn't aware of when they first aired. BBC iPlayer allows me to catch up with these shows and discover why so many love them. I've recently discovered Versailles, it's amazing, if you haven't seen it, give it a watch. I've been able to find all three seasons on iPlayer and watch an episode every night in bed. I hope TikTok will have some more great programme suggestions for me because I'm almost finished season three!
Friday Night Movie Night
Friday night for us is movie night and it's something we all look forward to after a long and busy week of work, school and various after-school activities between the boys. We make some popcorn, have some snacks and sit down together to cosy up and watch a film together. BBC iPlayer has lots of great film options for all the family and we've been working our way through them. Just recently, all the Shrek Movies and Puss in Boots have been added to the iPlayer. There are so many great family-friendly options for us to watch with all the boys.
There are also great classic (and more grown up) movies available too, such as Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Alice in Wonderland, The Commitments, that our older boys enjoy once their little brother is in bed. So, there really is something for all the family and for all our interests too. My eldest boys also have a love for all the great 80's and 90's films such as Beethoven, Ghostbusters etc.
History and Nature
If there are two subjects that we love as a family, it's history and nature. Some great offerings on the TV have given us a chance to learn more about certain topics. We all find David Attenborough's documentaries to be incredibly fascinating and quite relaxing too (there's just something calming about his voice, isn't there?). As people who love nature, his insight into the natural world is remarkable and the visuals from his documentaries are nothing short of stunning.
As we live on a farm, we also love Clarkson's Farm. I find it really interesting watching programmes like this that follow a place over the course of a whole year, and of course, it's great entertainment too.
We all love history, especially our 8-year-old son and we've found many great programmes and documentaries that have allowed him to learn even more about the areas of history he's interested in-particularly the Titanic, WWI and WWII. We found a great Titanic miniseries for him to watch on ITV and he loved it. I love seeing his joy at learning and hearing about all the facts he's learned and our discussions about various eras of history. It's something very special to me as his mother.
Rediscovering Old Favourites
I love rediscovering old favourite TV programmes of mine and watching them again. I've also shared some of them with my eldest son too. We watch old Top Gear episodes on Dave and in my own time, I love rewatching Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and Have I Got News For You, which are both programmes I've been watching since I was a teenager. I loved all those shows and always looked forward to watching them every week, so it's great that they're still available to watch all these years later.
For us, watching TV isn't just purely for entertainment, it's about the connection it gives us as a family, the information it gives us and the memories it's created for us all over the years.
Your TV Licence lets you enjoy a huge range of live TV. It covers you for:
∙ All TV channels, like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Dave and international channels – but you don't need a licence if you only watch non-BBC channels on-demand.
∙ Pay TV services, like Sky, Virgin Media, and BT – but these are platforms that could have both live and on-demand services.
∙ Live TV on streaming services, like YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.
∙ Everything on BBC iPlayer.
This includes recording and downloading. On any device.
What are some of your favourite programmes and films to watch together as a family?
