Learn from series: We know what to do!

One of the passengers who overpowered the attacker and prevented a crash on the Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on September 30th said he was helped by a documentary series about aircraft emergencies. Yaniv Hayun said that after subduing the pilot, he grabbed the controls in the cockpit and began pulling back the levers. When asked how he knew what to do, Hayun referred to the TV series “Mayday – Alarm in the Cockpit”, which has been broadcast internationally since 2003.

In the episodes, well-known air disasters are examined and re-enacted, including through voice recordings, eyewitness reports and expert interviews. We were inspired by this story. What knowledge from TV series has ever helped us? And maybe serial junkies know better what to do in extreme situations? Four testimonials from the screen into real life.

This is hardly applicable to emergency situations, but as a child, Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana, as a cool pop star by night and a normal girl with a beach house in Malibu by day, taught me how to remember the bones in the body. In one episode she has problems with her biotest and, as befits a show star, she naturally invents a suitable song to build a mnemonic for herself. Here's an excerpt from the Grammy-worthy song: "When I'm milking the cows on Uncle Earl's farm. / I need the cubit that's in my arm." Or: "For the forehead and parietal bone / that should be the end. That's 206, / oh man how cool, I'll check it out."

Texts of this lyrical brilliance naturally require a little creativity, but if you want to remember the birth dates of your own children (to all fathers), the drink order for a 15-person regulars' table or the time and address of the next three booked Pilates lessons, a little song can help. Who knows, maybe it will save your life. Anastasia Zeyneli

When I was in kindergarten and elementary school, my best friend lived right next door. She had a great garden that was great to play in. We could spend hours wondering how our imaginary horses were doing and we spun intrigues that were more creative than many adventure novels. I dreaded it even more when winter came and we could only play in her room.

No matter what we played, the radio plays of Harry Potter, Part 2 were playing. And no, not the whole story, we listened to a CD of the audio book over and over again. It was the part in which Harry Potter speaks the snake language Parseltongue and Rufus Beck pronounces it in a hissing manner that is, in retrospect, impressive. At that time I couldn't hear it anymore. I was extremely bored. At least there was something good about the CD ordeal. I learned about myself: repetition is stupid, I'd rather do something new every day. I think that's why I'm sitting here today. Ann-Kathrin Leclère

In one of the most defining moments of my childhood, Mr. Bean is served raw meat in a fancy restaurant. He is disgusted but is too polite to return it. So he hides it everywhere: in the ashtray, in the flower vase, in the violinist's pants, in a stranger's purse, until the chaos escalates. It was precisely his efforts to conform to social codes that got him into this mess. The main character Fleabag - from the series of the same name, which I only got to know years later, doesn't even think about fulfilling expectations; she even rebels against it.

In the middle of a Quaker meeting, she announces, "Sometimes I worry that I wouldn't be a real feminist if I had bigger breasts," and masturbates to an Obama speech next to her boyfriend. Both series use (British) humor to show how absurd things can get when we follow social conventions too strictly, and how funny when we don't. They taught me to go through life less seriously. Rahel Bueb

It's not my intention, but if it came to that, I would be prepared. Naz Khan (Riz Ahmed) also never wanted to be in the situation of waking up in the apartment of a stranger he had slept with the night before and finding her in a pool of blood and with a dozen stab wounds. In a panic, he grabs a bloody knife and flees - an extremely suspicious act, even though he is innocent. How could he know any better? He hadn’t seen “The Night Of” before.

In the 2016 HBO miniseries you learn useful things about the US criminal system: for example, to remain silent with the police from the outset and to call a lawyer. You learn how to dress as a defendant in the courtroom. That you're not doing yourself any favors by taking the stand yourself, even if you know you're innocent. And that you have to find allies in prison. However, it doesn't stop there. Naz's lawyer John Stone (John Turturro), who is plagued by severe eczema, brings with him the much more realistic lessons: wear sandals so that the skin can breathe. Always have a chopstick with you in case it scratches something. Avoid steroids. Seek Chinese medicine. Valerie Catil