Mark Watson's Inner Child

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12/11/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Mark Watson's Inner Child

Comedian Mark Watson wonders why so many adults are playing children's games. Seriously. 

Mark plays 'hedgehogs' with grown-ups and visits a board games cafe. Why are so many adults playing kids' games? From 2016.

Being grown-up is too boring. Is that the thinking behind the current trend in 'kiddult' activity - where adults play kids' games and generally get in touch with their 'inner child'?

Comedian Mark Watson finds no shortage of evidence for this trend - the programme features adult 'days in the woods' in Corby for grown-ups who like climbing trees and making dens, there are play gyms for those who want to dress up or rediscover Lego. 

We find some women in Bristol who like opening their colouring books in a pub, cafes that serve nothing but the breakfast cereals of your youth, playdays for adults in urban parks, to say nothing of swings and slides and the set of musical see-saws that are currently being enjoyed by adults in London's Leicester Square.

Mark is out and about with his own inner child, playing 'hedgehogs' with grown-ups and sampling the pleasures of a 'board games cafe'.

Philosopher Susan Neiman and Psychologist Oliver James offer their interpretations of this contemporary phenomenon. 

Producer: Susan Marling

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2016.

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