JUDGING by the number of quiz shows there are on TV, they must be popular. Tipping Point, The Chase, Eggheads and so on, and it's nice sitting with the family eating our tea showing off by recalling what many would regard as trivia, or perhaps utter rubbish.

But a number of the younger generations who participate on these shows say, 'Oh, I don't know the answer, I wasn't born then.' So why they studied history at school is baffling, but it then becomes even more worrying when the diet of TV on offer today is looked at.

No one can help their age or when they were born, and I don't want to get boring by quoting that age-old adage 'when I was a lad.' But in the late ’50s and early ’60s we had perhaps three channels with two choices for Children's Hour. Children’s programmes were not a stand-alone channel as they are today, we had an hour or so, and then the News, and whatever happened to be on during the evenings.

But now, children’s channels can be watched 24/7, and it appears to have spawned this generation who never see the news, history, current affairs, politics and so on, and are even hard-pushed to know who Del-Boy and Rodney, Arkwright, the Two Ronnies or even Mrs Brown's Boys are, so they are missing out on a mix of the TV diet which we enjoyed in our younger days, where we saw something of everything, and thus developed a social education.

Most appear to know that Cameron is Prime Minister, but then trip themselves up by believing that historically, Churchill is a dog on an insurance advert. So are we looking at future generations of vapid adults who could win Mastermind on the specialist subjects of Sponge Bob Square Pants and Peppa Pig, but would fail miserably on general knowledge. I think we are. But at least the libraries have their Summer Reading events which helps encourage them, but to read a newspaper? Oh, perish the thought, they might learn something other than fiction.

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton, Poole