The family dinner scenes in Blue Bloods are as recognizable as Tom Selleck’s moustache.

And the star, who plays Frank Reagan in the show, says he’s a big fan of those scenes that get the whole family together to chat about the job and their personal lives.

Of course, in real-life, no family of cops would be able to guarantee getting together once a week in this way, what with varying shifts and all that overtime. But suspending our disbelief, these shots help draw together the Reagan family and serve to show they are more than just a group of individuals whose blood all runs blue.

And it’s not just for viewers that the family dinner scenes show unity. Selleck says they’re also a great way of getting the cast together in one room at the same time.

In an interview for CBS This Morning, the actor said that often, on “an episodic show with an ensemble, you (may not) see your fellow actors for a month”. On Blue Bloods, though, which he said takes eight days to shoot an episode, the cast are able to have a “little actor family get-together in addition to the family dinner”.

Obviously, if the cast didn’t get on so well, this might be something the actors would dread. According to Selleck, though, his cast-mates on the show are “fine actors” and he loves them all.

The dinner scenes he said, therefore, are a “double bonus”, although he added that it can be hard work eating for eight hours.

And yes, the food is real, and the actors are genuinely tucking into it while the scenes are being filmed. Well, some of them are for most of the time. It’s not uncommon, though, for food to be pushed around the plate with actors keen to pace themselves.

Which makes sense. A scene – or a part of a scene – can be shot and reshot a lot of times in eight hours. And can you imagine sitting around feeling stuffed and ready for sleep when the director cuts to your next shot and expects you to remember your lines?

So, while they come with their own unique set of challenges, the family dinner scenes in Blue Bloods seem to be generally well-received by the cast – especially Tom Selleck. And that can only be a good thing. Because love them or loathe them, without those get-togethers it would be a very different show.