Dear LPG, 

I hope that, like me, all readers are making the most of being able to get out and about in the relative safety of the summer nights, but I know that the winter is coming again which will mean longer nights and shorter days.   

Now that I am a bit older and as the nights draw in and get darker earlier, we older people feel safer having returned to our homes as soon as it gets dark. However, once indoors, the fact that we can see the darkness from the other side of our windows as we draw the curtains reminds us of how much time we will be alone before seeing another person.

There is always the phone, and mine gets a lot of use during those darker afternoons.   I make a lot more use of both my landline and my mobile as the nights draw in, but have you ever phoned a few of the people you know, one after the other, and discover that each is preoccupied with something which gets you the response, ‘Can I call you back a bit later?’  Whatever your evening telephone session's success, there is another way of making time pass a bit quicker: the television. 

I must admit to treating mine like the friend in the corner of the living room who provides background noise whenever I am at home. During the day, it is more of a timepiece because, when it is on my favourite channel, I only have to glance at it to have a pretty good idea of what time it is.    

If you are anything like me, after all those telephone calls, you’re still not tired enough to go to bed, and there is usually something on the small screen that will catch your attention.  One glance at a soap opera, the first whistle and kick-off of that football match, a recipe that takes your fancy or the wide-eyed look of the victim at the beginning of a drama often leaves me thinking that I will just wait until I can find out who planted the bomb or why Tracy Smith did not go to the party, and that is more than enough to keep me watching for a couple of hours.  

Have you noticed how all the stations have now adopted the habit of using the ‘end of part two’ or three to tell you what will be compelling about the programme that follows the one you are watching? It does work, and I often fall asleep and wake up a couple of hours later to find out that I missed the whole thing.  

I wonder if I am alone in my television-watching habits, although I suspect that I am not. I found a survey that shows the over-60s are the age group that watches the most, and another that Age UK commissioned confirms just how typical I am.

I have asked LPG to share it so other readers can figure out how typical you are… 

 
BJ, Lewisham 

BJ offers some interesting statistics, which might make you compare yourself to the rest of the British television-watching public…

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