The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Every summer holiday in the early to mid 70s they'd show this TV series (along with White Horses and Belle and Sebastian). As with most programmes, the theme tune was the most memorable thing - da,da,da,da- da,da, dum, dur, dum - and the title sequence of waves breaking on a beach really grabbed our imaginations. Me and my brother would sing the theme sarcastically every time we went to Bognor on our family holidays.

The show was dubbed from German into English if I remember rightly, and it starred a German actor called Robert Hoffmann as the lead character, Robinson Crusoe, bringing Daniel Defoe's classic novel to life from 1965 into the 80s via repeats shown on TV.

I can't really remember what happened in it. I craved a new series for the holidays and felt that the music recording was getting worse with every passing year as the film wore out. The story was told in flashback form, where Robinson Crusoe, who had ended up on the island after the ship he was on fell foul to a storm, recalled his life prior to this for the TV viewer. He comes under attack from cannibals at one point in his island life, but manages to repel them with explosives. He also manages to rescue their next supper in the form of a man called Friday. This is just one thing that helps Crusoe put his life right and become a better man post-shipwreck.

The other things that are in my memory (funny how you remember certain things!) are: Robinson Crusoe had a lovely friendly dog called Dick (who was washed ashore from the same shipwreck), who Robinson said was his only friend and companion on the island (until Friday turned up of course - you know the story) - I loved watching that friendship with his dog. And, Robinson also had a parrot in his shelter who always used to squark: "Poooooor Robin, poooooor Robin". Again great and innocent children's Tv from 60s/70s.

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