Samantha Morton puts her TV to bed with a blanket

26 March 2019

Samantha Morton has revealed her television set has a bed time to stop her children from watching it too much.

Samantha Morton

The 41-year-old English actress didn't own a TV for seven years but decided to invest in one when she landed the part of villain Alpha in 'The Walking Dead' so she could watch the previous episodes of the post-apocalyptic zombie show.

But Morton limits the amount of time her two young kids - daughter Edie, 11, and four-year-old son Theodore, her children with her filmmaker partner Harry Holm - spent watching television so has a blanket she uses to cover the screen when it's time for the TV to 'go to sleep'.

In an interview with the new issue of Radio Times magazine, she said: "When I got the part in 'The Walking Dead' I said to my partner, 'Listen, I think we need to sort out a telly so I can watch it.' So we got a television like a normal family. But it has a big blanket over it. At a certain time, the television goes to sleep, 'Oh, the TV's tired!' "

Morton lived without a television in her home for such a long time because she didn't want her two children being "bombarded with stuff" and she wanted them to embrace their life on a farm in the Peak District in the English countryside.

The 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' star - who also 19-year-old daughter Esme from her relationship with actor Charlie Creed-Miles - explained: "It was because of where I lived and I didn't want one. It's also because I had young children. You don't want them to turn the telly on and just be constantly bombarded with stuff. I'm not a huge fan of that when you're raising children."

But now she does have a television, Morton has become a Netflix binge watcher and she's also a huge fan of BBC police drama 'Line of Duty'.

She said: "'Call My Agent!', a French series on Netflix. I'm watching it going, 'Oh my God, that is so true!' It is just genius and hilarious. I'm also a huge 'Line of Duty' fan. I can't wait for the new series of. Jed Mercurio's attention to detail is just awesome."