Dear LPG,

Here is an interesting question for us older folk.  Do you count your television amongst your list of companions?

If I did not before lock down, I have to admit that we have become closer during that experience.  You can only say so much to your friends and there are some unwritten rules of etiquette that govern the time of day that you can pick up the telephone, even if you are calling another country.  How many of us have called friends or relatives who live in America, Australia or some other far flung part of the world, only to find that we got the time difference the wrong way round when we hear the dazed, half-asleep, version of their voice mumble who they are?

It is then, when I can’t sleep or find anyone that I would dare phone in the early hours that the television comes into play and a flick of the channels will usually find some really old programme that you will settle for in the hope that it will bore you so much that you will nod off again.

Ever since the second TV channel came into being there have been competition wars, as the companies behind them fight to hold the interest of as many viewers as they can, and this got me thinking about the all-time most watched television programmes.

There is only one way to get the answer to such a question as this and it involved asking my other really good friend Google who informed me that news and current affairs, sport and occasions relating to the births, marriages and deaths of royalty remain the most watched television programmes of all time.

I have to say while it came as no surprise to me that Princess Diana’s wedding and funeral were both listed in that chart, I was quite surprised about all the Olympics, football and boxing that we have chosen to watch over the years, especially because, I thought I was quite average when it comes to what I watch, and even though I was a great fan of Mohammed Ali, I was always content to see the result of a fight rather than put myself through every gory detail of each blow. 

I have to say that when we only had one television and the majority vote was for a football match, I was usually the one supplying the men in my family with the snacks while they celebrated every goal with lots of noise, and while I had no interest, I could definitely hear the difference between the home goals and the away ones. 

According to the website I found, as a nation, our tastes are much the same.  As a typical lady of my age, I like to keep up with the soaps but they only found their way into this popularity chart once the news, and sporting events were eliminated.

My research was by no means conclusive, but it did take up a good half-an-hour of one of my increasingly-occurring sleepless nights, and I thought I would ask LPG to leave a link just in case you are going through a similar sleepless episode as you read. 

I am now considering my personal all-time greatest TV moments, how does your top ten look?

RS, Dulwich

RS shares her page of reference…

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