The kid and Who

I desperately do not want to be one of the dorky dads that forces their own obsessions on their kids, I want them to find what they like for themselves. But I can still be absolutely delighted that I get to watch my favourite TV show of all time with the four-year-old, because she fucking loves it.

I came to Doctor Who at about the same age, and it's just wonderful to watch it with somebody who doesn't come loaded with four decades of expectation and experience with all things Who.

She doesn't care about the lore, or the canon, or anything like that. She just loves the fart jokes and the scary monsters and the hugely enormous charms of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.

Some of the episodes are a bit scary, she is literally behind the sofa for a lot of it, (which is a long established cliche of the series, and still actually true) but the first episode of this season also explained that kids need to be a bit of frightened of the bogeyman. And she knows that the good guys are always going to win.

And some of it goes right over her head - she didn't get a lot of Boom, and was bored to tears by 73 Yards, but that's to be expected. She still can't wrap her mind around the fact that it's Ruby who is the baby at the end of the Christmas special, and I haven't given Dot and Bubble a shot with her yet.

What she really, really likes is the songs. The Devil's Chord is her favourite episode in the world so far - she's already working on a mean twist - and the Goblin King songs have their own dance routine (usually accompanied by a dead serious 'do you like my moves, dad?').

I've become extremely jaded around the reaction to Dr Who, every fucker has got an opinion on everything about every new episode. But they must be doing something right to still get the kind of primal reaction I'm seeing in my house these days. It's an honour to share in it.