The head of global theme park giant Merlin Entertainments says its biggest competition is people choosing to stay at home on their phones and other devices. Fiona Eastwood says a day out at one of its UK attractions - which include Legoland, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers - was the perfect antidote for spiralling screen time. In a wide-ranging BBC Big Boss Interview, the chief executive reflected on challenges in the forthcoming Budget, big brand partnerships, and how its customers were responding to cost-of-living pressures. Eastwood also highlighted the importance of seasonal attractions to its customers - with Halloween now rivalling its summer season in driving profits at some attractions. Having been in the job since February, Eastwood has taken over at a time when her industry is facing challenges from a dip in consumer confidence.

Thorpe Park has a new attraction based on the Netflix series Black Mirror – and it's so horribly creepy and panic-inducing that I had to escape through the fire exit. Black Mirror: Labyrinth is an entirely new adventure that puts the park's visitors at the centre of the action – but there are enough nasty surprises to give grandma a heart attack. I'm a huge fan of Charlie Brooker's sci-fi anthology series, which explores a twisted alternate reality in the near-future where technology and'humanity's darkest instincts collide'. But the fun of watching an episode of Black Mirror is that all the nasty stuff is happening to someone else – you're just a witness to it. With Labyrinth, you become the unfortunate victim to the antagonist – in this case, an evil artificial intelligence (AI) system that harvests all your personal data.