What do you watch on TV with your 8-11 year old boys?

[poolnoodle]

Because I'm struggling to find something that they enjoy which is still interesting to me.

They're staying up later so I want to be able to flump on the sofa occasionally and watch something as a family.

But there's only so many nature docs I can stand!

IS there anything young-boy-friendly and enjoyable for adults on freeview / netflix / amazon?

Did you watch Worzel Gummidge when it was on over Christmas? DS loved that. We also watch some history programmes and some food programmes, Dirty Vegan etc. in the hope if encourages our fissy eater to try more foods

Thank you everyone for suggestions.

I have been starting to think about what I could watch with my ds age 7. I’ve been struggling to come up with something that both he and his sister (almost 13) might like, but there’s been quite a few mentioned here that might work.

Have compiled quite a list to work through

Going on from the old sitcoms

ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES

SOME MOTHERS DO HAVE'EM

Miranda and Outnumbered on Netflix.

So I tried Outnumbered.

"Mum, this seems a lot like our house"

Yes it does, son. Yes, it does.

VERY funny.

DS2 is Ben.

Its priceless when they recognise themselves in Outnumbered. DS is jake/Ben and DD is karen/Ben.

Stranger things on Netflix. Maybe try one on your own as it may be too scary

Yes, we watched the first two episodes of Outnumbered last night. When they were pondering whether they over parented or under parented, ds said 'under, definitely under'.

My 11yo isn’t massively keen on watching tv so this is a struggle. He does enjoy things like Inside the Factory or the ‘Back in time for’ series though.

Yes the Outnumbered vs 4forks household similarities are priceless. DS (eldest) is Jake (down to the letting us know which series might start getting more inappropriate for DS2 (9.5)) - incidentally, that point appears to be as "Jake" gets older. DS2 is a special mix of Ben & Karen. Hilarious how most families have the same characters in them. The thing I love most about Outnumbered is the fact the kids pretty much ad lib, which I guess is why it works as it does.

@TowerRingInferno have you watched HOW IT IS MADE

on quest or something like that - it is on freeview

It is quite fascinating that a simple object has such a "journey" into production

Just looked it up and they are shown quite late into the night so you might want to record and watch during normal viewing hours

SUB that sounds right up his street. Thank you for the recommendation. I’d never heard of it.

You are welcome

I remember them making sticks of seaside rock with writing inside and all kings of random things, it is quite fascinating to watch the process

Although now it seems to be a slightly different show called HOW DO THEY DO IT? on quest but it looks similar idea

Which on my TV is channel 12 freeview

Thanks to pp who recommended The Goes Wrong Show! We watched the Christmas episode last night and my 10 yr old found it hilarious!

V interesting to read this old thread now that our DCs are at its target age. We've enjoyed many of the things on here already; it's interesting to reflect that we probably have a wider 'TV diet' than I would tend to give us credit for.

I can definitely update the thread with:

• Junior Taskmaster (I think didn't exist in 2020? I actually prefer it to the adult version)
• Step up to the plate
• Fifteen to one
• Anything fun that's happening out in the real world, eg. the Boat Race, Ski Sunday in winter, Olympics, Royal occasions etc.
• Poirot (a bit scary but not too scary!)
• DCs absolutely love Gladiator but that's not necessarily a recommendation from me!

Oooh and the Hannah Fry's Secret Genius of Modern Life as well!