Behind The Sofa
“Behind the sofa” is a British pop culture phrase, used as a metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive a person to — e.g., a child hiding behind the sofa to avoid a frightening television programme. Although the phrase is sometimes employed in a serious context, its use is usually intended to be humorous and/or nostalgic, and to evoke a pleasant, safe fear in a domestic setting.
The expression originated from popular media commentary on young children being frightened by episodes of the BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who, particularly during the 1970s. The apocryphal idea arose in the media that young children would hide behind furniture when especially frightening scenes were being shown, as they were unwilling to miss the programme altogether. The phrase is strongly associated with Doctor Who in the United Kingdom, so much so that in 1991 the Museum of the Moving Image in London named their exhibition celebrating the programme “Behind the Sofa”.
“Everyone remembers hiding behind the sofa,” journalist Sinclair McKay wrote of the programme during its thirtieth anniversary year of 1993. “Remember hiding behind the sofa every time Dr Who came on the television?” the Daily Mirror newspaper asked its readers in a feature article two years later. In a 2006 interview with Sky News, Prince Andrew, Duke of York said that he hid from Daleks behind a Windsor Castle settee while watching Doctor Who as a child. The Economist has presented “hiding behind the sofa whenever the Daleks appear” as a British cultural institution on par with Bovril and tea-time.
Apparently Bovril is a “thick, salty beef extract” that they mix with hot water and drink as tea, or used as beef broth for soup and stew.