Liam Bruce is a student of journalism at GCU. Keen on politics and satire, he believes in free speech.

I am unashamedly a box set addict. No wait, scratch that, I am a tiny bit ashamed, after all it probably isn’t great to be spending a whole weekend experiencing prison life through the eyes of a drug dealing lesbian, but such is the modern world.

I’ve gone through several box sets in my time, usually during the school/Uni summer break; Lost, Stargate, 24, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, the list really does go on.

There is however one programme that I come back to time and again, Aaron Sorkin’s late nineteen nineties opus, ‘The West Wing’. This TV show, starring Martin Sheen, and spanning two millennia had a profound impact on my life to date. I was always interested in politics, and I found American politics really interesting. But this show created a spark in me, a spark I am currently fanning.

This is the power the box set has. I was inspired to travel all the way to the home of ‘The West Wing’ and visit Washington D.C., six months ago in fact. If I had to pick a highlight in my life so far, this would be it.

I’ve always been more of a traveller than a holidaymaker. I much prefer exploring cities and museums than lounging on a beach.

In dreary mid January, the company town was deserted, aside from a Wednesday when I got caught up in the world’s biggest pro-life march, the perfect time to explore.

The terribly hospitable people that they are, the Americans had all their museums open for free, the Smithsonian was my oyster. I was in my element. The taxidermy of the Natural History Museum, the aeronautics of Air and Space and the history of the National Archives were all within my grasp.

On this trip I stood atop the Washington monument, toured the US Capitol, mourned Martin Luther King and had a total nerdgasm when I got to go into the White House (it’s white y’know). Through some persistent emailing and a really nice woman at ABC News, I wangled my way into the pressroom to watch a daily briefing, I was only waiting for CJ to brief, but I was about 4 elections too late! Sorry, West Wing joke.

A stand out moment for me was Martin Luther King Day (#MLKDay), I stood in the exact spot at the Lincoln Memorial where he stood in 1963, I had that famous speech playing on my iPod, I looked over the city, the sun was setting, and I wept. The one time in my life that I have ever felt spiritual, sat on marble steps, below a 19 ft tall statue, four thousand miles from home.

This is the power the box set had over me. My experience has turned ‘West Wing’ into a safe haven for, that comfort viewing that we all need when we’re feeling down. But now it has new meaning, when I watch (or other D.C. based stuff like House of Cards or God forbid, Olympus Has Fallen) I have a connection. I was there. And damn, I’ll be going again!