What does your television room look like?

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We’ve got loads of books and the TV is sort of just there. There’s also a record player. So you’ve got a TV, then loads of records, then a record player, then lots and lots of books.

Who is sitting next to you on the sofa when you watch TV? Your husband?

Yep – and my kids as well. They’re 17, 13 and ten.

Your kids must enjoy watching you pop up on screen…

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Hopefully when I do it doesn’t detract from their viewing pleasure. On the whole it doesn’t seem to.

Who takes charge of the remote control?

I try to be as even-handed as I can, but my kids tend to take charge and we watch a lot of Outnumbered, which they love, and also Bob’s Burgers, which they’re big fans of too.

What other TV do you watch?

I was completely addicted to Fleabag. I’ll also watch anything with Michaela Coel in it, most recently The Aliens and her show Chewing Gum, she’s brilliant. I really liked Flowers with Julian Barratt and Olivia Colman, and I’m looking forward to Julia Davis’s Morning Has Broken [due to start on Channel 4 next year]. I watch a lot of history programmes on iPlayer – I’ve just seen a programme about Barbara Hepworth and one with John Betjeman on churches.

Would you ever watch your old stuff such as Spaced?

I don’t think it’s on! Is it on a channel? Can you watch it? [We checked and it’s on the London only channel London Live on Friday at 1.50am].

What about radio and podcasts?

I listen to Radio 4 – it’s always on. I always end up listening to Woman’s Hour, which I love. Recently they had an interview with Billie Piper, talking about her play Yerma. Also Dead Ringers, which is unfailingly spot on and brilliant – it’s laugh out loud funny.

If you could make a challenge TV show such as Bake Off, what would it be? Other than baking or pottery.

I like the idea of the series ending with a finished product, so vegetable growing? The Great British Vegetable? Why isn’t that on TV? I’m growing beetroots at the moment.

So you’re quite green-fingered?

Not naturally, but I’m getting there. I mean, the beetroots have grown, but I had a really bad invasion of slugs. The courgettes on the other hand…

Do you watch Gardeners’ World?

No, and I probably should. I bet it’s on iPlayer. [It is!] Perhaps that’s what the problem is – I don’t watch Gardeners’ World.

If you had £8 billion to spend on the BBC, what would you do?

I would make it global. I would take the BBC and put it in every country in the world. I would have a local BBC station making local BBC programmes that were funded and free from advertising, serving and informing the populace in an impartial and a sort of egalitarian way.

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Jessica Hynes appears in Hooten & the Lady, Friday 9pm Sky1

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