HOW TO WATCH TV ON THE GO!

Watching the shows you love isn’t restricted to your living room TV, or even the little set in the kitchen. Thanks to the availability of on-demand programming, you can watch on gadgets that don’t have TV aerials built in, such as laptops, tablets or mobile phones. In the panel below we’ve picked out some of the best tablets for viewing TV, with bigger screens and better audio than you might expect, to help you get your TV fix wherever you are.

The simplest way to watch programmes on the go is to stream them; that is, to let them play direct from the source, such as the BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub apps. This means your device has to be connected to the internet – but that’s not always possible. For a start, if the internet connection fails – likely to happen if you’re watching on your smartphone on the train, for instance – the streaming stops. And if you’re abroad, you won’t be allowed to stream from sources such as Netflix or iPlayer.

You can get round these obstacles by downloading shows in advance. Then you’ll be able to watch even in a place where there’s no signal, like on a plane.

Here’s how to do it: launch the relevant app like Netflix, iPlayer, Sky Go or Amazon Prime on your phone, tablet or laptop. Sign in, if necessary, and find the movie or show you want, such as Game Of Thrones with Emilia Clarke (pictured). Choose the film or episode and find the word ‘download’ or the download symbol, usually an arrow pointing down to a white line. Tap this and the content downloads. In some apps, such as BBC iPlayer, you can opt to choose high-quality downloads, which look better but take up more space on your device. When it’s finished, you may have to go to the downloads section to find it. Once you start watching, you have a limited time to complete viewing before it automatically deletes. Not every movie or programme is available to download because of licensing restrictions but many are, and downloading content before going on holiday is a great way of ensuring you’ll still have something to do if it rains. Remember that you often won’t be able to download while you’re overseas so make sure you do it before you go.

If you do run out of things you’ve downloaded, then your gadget will still be able to access more content by going to apps like iTunes or Google Play Store, but these offer movies and shows you’ll need to rent or buy. Bear in mind, too, that hotel wi- fi for instance is often very slow, so it can take hours for a movie to download.

And if you’re downloading, or streaming, to your phone or tablet using a mobile data connection rather than wi-fi you may quickly hit your contract’s data limit – movies are big files. Once over your limit, even at home, extra charges apply. And they can be eye-watering.