Spending time with my grandchildren, over the past few weeks, reminded me of something simple but important. Children do not need constant stimulation. They need books. Play.Laughter. Adventure. Shared experiences.

Children don’t just fall in love with characters. They fall in love with worlds. When a child asks to watch something again, they are asking to return to a place that feels familiar, surprising and worth revisiting.

I saw this with my grandchildren watching The Magic Faraway Tree. What stayed with us were not just the characters, but the wonderfully unexpected details that still make us laugh. The same is true of Bluey, The Creature Cases and Gabby's Dollhouse. Each creates a world that feels complete and alive. Children don’t just watch these stories. They enter them.They imagine themselves inside them.They return to them again and again. When a child says: “Can we watch that again?” Th

Platforms measure clicks, viewing minutes and completion rates. Regulators track complaints and compliance. These numbers matter. But they are not how children measure stories.

When we ask what is appropriate for children, we are really asking two different questions. What gets made.And what gets watched. Before a programme reaches our homes, it passes through commissioners, editors, lawyers and regulators. Their job is to manage risk and protect children. That matters. But once a story enters the home, a quieter authority takes over. Parents decide what feels right for their child.Children decide what they want to watch again. That is where trust l

Across children’s literature and television, the stories that endure are driven by misjudgement, embarrassment, exaggeration, and recovery. Think of the flawed protagonists in books by Roald Dahl, the outrageous comedy of David Walliams, or television series such as Bluey and The Creature Cases.

Authentic storytelling does not mean chaos or carelessness. It means emotional recognisability — characters who make mistakes, feel awkward, misjudge situations, and grow imperfectly. Children repeatedly return to stories that allow exaggeration, humour, and emotional risk. They drift away from stories that are overly smoothed or heavily explained.