I’ve had a vague draft for a blog post about the warm hug of familiar media for a while now, but as ever Kottke has written about it better than I ever could. In this post, the question is posed: What’s Your Go-To Comfort Media?

I reckon most of us have certain books, movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, and other media that we turn to when we need some comfort. These are things we’ve seen, read, or heard before — often many times — and know exactly what we’re going to get from them.

I read something a while back that mentioned we often rewatch well known and loved TV and films because when we know what’s going to happen, it takes away the anxiety of the unknown - is that person going to make it, will-they-wont-they - when you know, you don’t have to worry about it, you can just enjoy it.

For me, I tend to reach for audio of my favourite TV and films. Back to the Future is always on hand, but so is Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and if I want something a bit slower and longer, The Sting. For TV, I have Only Fools and Horses on repeat, as well as Miranda and, just recently, Jonathan Creek. I don’t know why I’ve suddenly reached for the crime-solving magician’s assistant, but because I know all the twists and whodunits, there’s something comforting about just listening to the back-and-forth between Jonathan and Maddie. (Obviously, only listening up to the point that Caroline Quention left. Sheridan Smith was okay but anything else is not acceptable… that’s a whole other blog post, I suppose.)

There are new watches that can be trusted to deliver exactly what you’re expecting though - up until it recently finished Ghosts was always a guaranteed good time, Taskmaster is continually brilliant, and Death in Paradise, despite getting marginally less good with each change of detective, is still reliably bright and sunny in these dark January days. There’s so much more out there to discover but so much to be gained from the old favourites as well, thank goodness!