Talking Television: Our Survey Says

If watching television is one of our favourite pastimes, then talking about the television we’re watching must be right up there, too. BAFTA decided to find out more by asking research specialist Ginger Comms to survey the great British public to discover just what impact the art form has on us. Here are a few things we learned from the results...

People love to talk about their favourite television shows, performances or moments, but perhaps that’s because 83 per cent of our survey believe television is ‘definitely’ or ‘possibly’ of higher quality now than it’s ever been. Unsurprisingly, it was the youngest who agreed with this sentiment the most, with 55 per cent of 16 to 29-year-olds giving it the thumbs up. For whatever reason, the people of Leeds disagreed the most. Interestingly, 22 per cent felt that not watching a show meant they ‘missed out on conversations’ with work colleagues. Even in the time of Covid-19, those water cooler moments are essential.

Spoilers are the bane of everyone’s life, aren’t they?Especially for fans of genre television. Well, maybe S not. According to our survey, although the majority of people hulk out over spoilers, 21 per cent are utterly ‘fine’ with them. Indeed, 10 per cent are actually ‘pleased’ to see spoilers. Stoke-on-Trent – we’re looking at you, you crazy people (24 per cent)!

The survey data is based on responses from 1,573 individuals, spread across 20 cities in the UK. Gender bias was 807 male / 766 female, with age ranges of 16-29 (539), 30-44 (547), 45-59 (309) and 60+ (178).

It may be the popularity of such chilling shows as Killing Eve, Chernobyl cent have ever dreamt they were in their favourite show, because, well, what a nightmare! Or, perhaps they just couldn’t remember their dreams, which is a shame because they could be enjoying Chatty Wednesday in a guinea pig themed café. Leicester is the city that enjoys Morpheus’ embrace the most – 41 per cent have dreamt they were starring in their favoured series – while Edinburgh clearly isn’t a city of television dreamers (8 per cent).

It’s said that the best relationships are built on sharing, so perhaps it’s no surprise that 39 per cent felt that watching the same shows as their partner brought them closer together. As a shared interest, television is right up there, although interestingly women felt this stronger than men (42 per cent to 36). The couples of Sheffield agreed the most, with 55 per cent snuggling up to their partners to watch the box together. But...

The course of true love never did run smooth and 6 per cent have been dumped by their partner because they didn’t ‘approve of their taste in television’. This has happened to more men (just) than women (7 per cent to 5), but more men have ‘thought about’ dumping their partner for the same reason (7 to 6). Perhaps one cause for the split might be because their ‘partner watched a show without them’ (surely, a cardinal sin in any relationship), which led 11 per cent into arguments.

Picture the scene: someone starts telling you about their favourite show and then they ask you, ‘Have you seen it?’ What do you do? Well, 52 per cent have pretended, ‘at least once or twice’, to have seen it when actually they haven’t. And why’s that? The reasons given include: so they don’t feel left out (39 per cent); to seem cool (23 per cent); and to impress someone they fancy (16 per cent). The most honest people come from Plymouth (68 per cent) and Newcastle (59 per cent), while those most likely to have their pants on fire are Londoners (34 per cent).

If we’re not pretending to have seen a show, we’re judging others on what they have or haven’t watched. Well, 28 per cent of us are, believing ‘they can tell a lot about someone by the television they watch’. Cambridge is particularly judge-y at 39 per cent. Living up to their reputation as being somewhat unfriendly, 15 per cent of Londoners couldn’t be ‘friends with someone who doesn’t like the same television as them’, almost double the survey’s average (8 per cent).