Fellow parents, this is seismic. Well it is if you’re in the UK.

The BBC has just released version 2.0 of its iPlayer app for iPhone and iPad, with the key new feature being the ability to download shows to your device, rather than having to stream them over the network.

Every show you download remains watchable for 30 days on your device, or for seven days after you first hit play. The Guardian reckons that up to 50 hours of shows will fit on a 16GB iPad – although if you’ve already filled it up with apps, music and other stuff, that will be less.

Why is this a big deal? Think long plane trips or car journeys with restless children. You can now download a bunch of CBeebies / CBBC shows and have them ready on your iOS device, even when you don’t have a 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

Fill up on Alphablocks episodes and (possibly) enjoy a quiet journey! It’s a welcome feature, and one we can see coming in handy on holidays too. The new download feature will apparently be coming to the Android iPlayer app soon too.