Interesting Facts

According to a survey conducted by Sunshine.co.uk, 55% of Brits on holiday abroad seek out British home comforts. (The things that they admitted to specifically looking out for included:- - Restaurants serving British food – 37% - British bars – 25% - UK TV channels – 21% - British stores – 17% - British Brands – 12% I can understand UK TV channels, and for British Brands, maybe the odd packet of Rich Tea biscuits, or Tetley tea bags, but the rest is a mystery to me.) Source

According to a study commissioned by home energy management service "AlertMe", the average Brit lies in a semi-detached home and wakes up at 6.57am. (Half of all the families who replied said their favourite form of entertainment is watching television - the typical British family has the goggle box switched on for nine hours each day and their favourite show is the TV show Doctor Who. The run-of-the-mill British family sits down for dinner at 5.54pm, but they only eat together three times a week and they argue around twice a week. The average weekly food shop came to £76.02 and a further £12 each week was spent on alcohol. Fathers were most concerned about keeping costs down, in more than a third of households he is the person who turns off lights and stand-by switches. Meanwhile, British mothers bear the brunt of chores, doing an average of four and a half hours of housework each week, including at least five loads of laundry!)

On British TV, women are outnumbered by men two to one. (A study carried out for International Women's Day, found that more than three-quarters of contributors to news programmes were men, but soaps were more equal, women occupy 50% of the roles. I've always known that soaps are more accurate than the news. If you want to know what's really happening in the world watch Coronation Street or EastEnders.) Source: BBC News

Forty years after colour TV was introduced to the UK there are still 34,700 people with black and white television licences. (Of course this doesn't necessarily mean they don't have a colour TV.)

Australian Soap Neighbours is the most watched daytime TV show other than the BBC's One o'clock news. (According to the Independent the BBC currently pays about £25000 per episode but Fremantle (the makers) are reportedly seeking more than £70000. So, now you know where your British TV licence money goes.)