Do you reach for your phone first thing in the morning as soon as you wake up? Me too. Only, for the past week, it’s not my WhatsApp, email or social media I’ve been desperate to check, but how many moose have managed to swim across the Ångerman river overnight.

I know. I need more going on in my life, right? How else to explain my fascination with watching dozens of Swedish moose (yes, moose is the plural of moose, sadly not “meese”) undertake their annual spring migration to summer pastures?

Except, it’s not just me. Last year, the 24-hour online live stream – which sees Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT deploy 12 miles of cable and 34 cameras along the route these animals have taken since the ice age – was viewed by 9 million people, compared with under a million when it first aired in 2019.

Watching television was always supposed to be relaxing but rarely is these days. I doubt anyone was blissed out in front of Adolescence, and even reality shows such as my beloved Married at First Sight Australia are made for shouting at the screen (“Am I the only one who can see that he’s gaslighting her? HELLO?”).

Slow TV – a marathon event, shown in real time, in its........

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