Big Brother's Davina: 'Kids shouldn't watch TV'

Big Brother's Davina: 'Kids shouldn't watch TV'
Big Brother's Davina: 'Kids shouldn't watch TV' (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Celebrity Big Brother presenter Davina McCall has said she feels bad about allowing her children to watch TV. Davina - who is mum to Holly, eight, Tilly, six, and three-year-old Chester - believes that television affects youngsters' behaviour and is 'not good' for them. She told Psychologies magazine: "I only let them watch 15 minutes in the morning, and an hour after dinner, if I'm honest I feel bad about that hour, it's not good for kids to watch telly - it definitely affects their behaviour." The 42-year-old, whose long and varied television career has also included hosting a prime time chat show called Davina, presenting Comic Relief and playing a bloodthirsty zombie in Dead Set, is now fronting a Sky1 talent show Got To Dance. She was asked how she would feel if one of her children wanted to audition for a reality TV show when they were older. Davina said: "I'd ask them where they thought it would take them. "I couldn't tell them not to do it. But being in that house (Big Brother) makes you look at how your behaviour affects others, so it can be a very positive personal journey." Asked if fame was a trial to put herself through, Davina said: "I wanted to be famous to prove I was worth something. "But the day I got my own show on MTV I cried all night because it didn't bloody validate me and I'd spent years thinking it would. Fulfilment's an inside job. I just try to give more than is expected. That little bit extra takes you so far."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.