A child's eye view of the mysteries of the universe

A new video created to celebrate HISTORY's new Mystery Season quizzes children on the mysteries of the universe, with hilarious and adorable results.

The video sees five pairs of children discussing topics featured in HISTORY’s Mystery Season, which premieres on Monday 6 January.

The kids’ surprising, bizarre and entertaining responses range from detailed descriptions of aliens to their dream treasure haul, while they also demonstrate an impressive understanding of mysterious phenomena such as pyramids and portals.

One exchange sees a boy wishing he could be reincarnated as a 'walking, talking candy floss', to which his cousin responds, 'people could eat you and you would die'.

Another boy explains that his dream treasure discovery would be 'a pet unicorn and one thousand phones'.

The children’s visions of the afterlife were also strikingly vivid, with one girl explaining 'down there there’s people getting their heads chopped off, even though they are dead. And up there… I dunno.'

One girl offers up a perfect description of spectral beings, explaining 'ghosts are just floaty humans with a blanket over them, but I don’t think that is true because there can’t be any floating humans.'

The Loch Ness Monster 'looks like an elephant and it swims in the water with a long trunk, and it’s like a seal' according to one boy.

The video has been released to mark the launch of Mystery Season on HISTORY, which delves deep into the mysteries of the universe with a brand new series of programmes.

Starting on Monday 6 January, the season is headlined by The UnXplained with William Shatner, a one-hour, non-fiction series that explores subjects that have mystified mankind for centuries. It also features brand new series Ancient Aliens, The Curse of Oak Island, and In Search Of, presented by Star Trek star Zachary Quinto. Full details on all the shows are available in the attached EPK.

The video is accompanied by a poll of 1,000 children in primary school, which found that ghosts are the number one curiosity of the nation’s youngsters, with 32% wanting to know whether they exist, closely followed by 30% who want an answer on the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms, and 23% who need to know whether the Loch Ness Monster is more than a myth.

The research also found kids wanted to know why animals don’t speak the same language as humans, who named the dinosaurs and why can’t you see god when you’re in space.

Whether fish sleep, what stars are made of and who invented money are also questions children want answered, while they are also baffled about the existence of elves, unicorns, mermaids and Yetis.

More than a quarter of children believe that the Loch Ness monster is real, with 17 per cent of children convinced they have seen a ghost.

A spokesperson for HISTORY said: 'There are so many mysteries that people young and old long for the answer to. Children in particular are so incredibly inquisitive, asking their parents about far reaching topics from historical to the supernatural.

'Kids always look up to parents as the fonts of all knowledge with so many questions, but mums and dads can’t know everything – and will often look to documentaries or the internet for help to quench their kid’s thirst for knowledge.'

Mysteries from the topics of science, maths and history are those that mums and dads struggle to answer most, according to the 1,000 parents who also took part in the survey.

‘Where do babies come from?’, ‘do ghosts exist?’ and ‘is the tooth fairy or Santa real?’ are the most frequent questions inquisitive children have asked their parents.

More than six in 10 parents think their children get their questions purely from their active imagination - and over half also think bouncing conversation around with their friends generates their far-reaching thoughts.

Two thirds of parents find Googling the answer to children’s complicated questions helpful - with half of parents admitting to lying to their young when it comes to their trickier or more awkward queries.

And as the subject of 'fake news' continues to dominate the headlines, more than three in four parents have worried their children might Google questions but find the wrong information.

Half of parents have also found themselves red faced when their children have asked a question at an inappropriate time.

Of the youngsters surveyed, 44 per cent correctly identified that Stonehenge is an ancient monument, though one in 20 thought it was an old alien landing pad and one in 14 believe it is remains of a very old house.

And while 57 per cent of clever children also identified that pyramids in Egypt are a pharaoh's ancient tomb – one in 10 think it's an Egyptian house and five per cent believe they're a portal to another world.

Interestingly, a third of those polled via OnePoll said they thought the internet had always existed.

In children’s eyes, mum came out on top when it came to the most intelligent person they know, with dads coming in a close second - well ahead of their teachers.

Some young respondents claimed they were the most intelligent person they know, with some even stating the virtual assistant, Alexa was the brain box of the house.

A third of children speculated that the moon is made out of either cheese, water, dust, soil, stars, sand or metal.

A spokesperson for HISTORY added: 'Parents can often find it difficult to keep up with the volume of questions coming their way about different topics - but Mystery Season on HISTORY should be able to help.

'From investigations into the life’s biggest mysteries, exploring credible insight into ancient aliens as far back as 75 million years and many more fascinating unexplained questions – these shows can help shed a light on some of the biggest head scratchers.'