Now, I love Gogglebox. I suppose it reminds me of watching TV when I was a kid. I spent much of my childhood watching TV, and on Gogglebox, you have a bunch of people – friends, family, couples – sitting in their living rooms, drinking tea or wine and chatting about what they’re watching.
Invariably, when there’s a thriller or some sort of horror, depending on the weather and the time of year, someone will ask the rest of the family who THAT guy is, and risk breaking the tension and losing hold of the story, but they laugh together, cry together, flex their eyebrows when there’s a particularly confusing question on Only Connect, and it feels very familiar.
When I was a kid, a teacher asked us to write a sentence about each member of our families, in order to practise our handwriting.
I wrote:
My Daddy works very hard.
My Uncle Craig is very tall.
My Granny has grey hair.
My Mummy falls asleep in films.
My mother was livid.
But the best thing on the telly, especially when there’s no one else in the house, is Question Time.
I think there’s something very cathartic about yelling ‘Liar!’ at the TV. I have no concerns about which party or cause a person represents. If they say something ridiculous, with no basis in fact or policy, I yell at the box and instantly feel better.
I suppose it’s the same sort of release other people get from yodelling. I yell at people who don’t know I’m there.
There you have it. Day 52, #365HappyDays, Yelling at the TV.
Petrina Binney - Author 