When I was growing up, my mum didn't let us watch TV at the dinner table because she had unreasonable expectations of us bonding emotionally and having intense philosophical debates as we passed the salad. But every so often, Mum worked late, and Dad would surrender to the pleas of his three whining children and let us watch The Simpsons, while we ate oven-ready chicken Kievs, or that weird chicken and pasta bake that was 80 per cent Heinz cream of mushroom soup. This was the mid-1990s, before Jamie Oliver made it cool for men to cook. And yet these mealtimes were magical to me. The voluptuous joy of being entertained by the telly while stuffing my face with processed chicken, well, this was the life.
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From personal experience
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