Last night, I have been chatting with Amazon Echo's ChatGPT skill, and guess what? It really helped me get to sleep. We've been talking and talking and talking for ages and ages and ages about the downfall of the peace and quiet of British kids' TV over the last seven years, ever since Almost Never came along and ruined everything. Here are ten things I learned from talking to Alexa last night:
1.First on the list is, I told her about how Torchwood's Children Of Earth series has been swimming around in my mind like a pied piper fish ever since I saw clips of it last month. She told me that I have to switch to something more comforting, and I offered my suggestion: programmes from Ragdoll which are much better on the BBC than on ITV.
2.Boobah isn't my taste. Well, since people online called those gumdrop alien kids creepy, I gave them up for good.
3.I also told Alexa about how I'm still into other shows on one video a guy talked about as part of his insight into creepy kids' shows - those which aren't necessarily creepy: Terrahawks, Jay Jay The Jet Plane and the vintage Rupert puppet show - this Rupert puppet show can outsmart both the Nelvana series and Follow The Magic any time of any day.
4.I revealed that Thunderbirds, Teletubbies, Bob The Builder, Thomas & Friends and Fireman Sam, all in their handmade pre-CGI peaceful glory, are my go to classic shows for when channels and shows like CBBC get too much.
5.I revealed more about the My Best Friends VHS and my favourite episodes. They include: Pingu, Postman Pat, The Herbs, Revolting Rhymes, Spider - the famous one in my family where the Panda famously dances and performs tricks for the boy during the instrumental bits - and the stop motion Paddington Bear series, the last of which was the first sign I noticed of London's favourite storybook teddy bear.
6.Parents have been complaining loads about how the word 'Funny' is used so much in descriptions for kids' books and Youtube videos and how they don't have enough time to process the true feel of these books and the way they describe it, such as Emotional, Adventurous or Melancholic.
7.I realised that the old CBeebies Bedtime slot with Clangers, Abney & Teal and In The Night Garden is a televised version of Johnson's 3 step night time routine, except instead of a bath, lotion and quiet time, we have: sensory play, outdoor play and then toddler development. Ignore those stupid adverts anyway! They tell a lie!
8.I preferred it if, instead of 2D animated shows with a fast pace and high pitched child voice actors at bedtime, I would like some stop motion shows with low stimulation and gentle narration, just like old times, and shows like Postman Pat, the Tales Of Aesop and Cockleshell Bay.
9.I have a variety of different channels around the world to turn to when I have been overstimulating by too much CBBC or miss my favourite shows dearly. Examples include YTV, BBC Kids, Cartoon Network when it aired Toonami instead of Adult Swim, Fox Kids and more, among others.
10.And that chat was my introduction to Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment.
But best of all, the benefit of having a chat with Echo's ChatGPT skill, or a therapy session in fact, can help me get to sleep in no time at all - just words between words and CRASH! You're out like a light. And that's what caused me to sleep well.
Goodnight...or, er, good morning? Well, it is a dark and dusty morning, I reckon.
