Summer Holidays: The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
My 70's TV Childhood
English - August 01, 2023 00:00 - 20 minutes - 14.4 MBTV & Film Society & Culture television 1970's cultural history childhood nostalgia britain Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Welcome back to another episode of My 70's TV Childhood, where we take you back to Britain in the 1970s and reminisce about what it was like to be a child during that time, especially with the influence of television. Ah, the memories of gathering around our small 20-inch TVs, watching one of three channels, sometimes in black and white, sometimes with a rented TV set from Radio Rentals. Those were the days!
Before we dive into this episode's topic, let me extend a warm welcome to our new listeners. Thank you for joining us, and to our regular listeners, thank you for your continued support! Your feedback and reviews have been fantastic, and I truly appreciate hearing from you.
Speaking of feedback, remember our "Corrections and Confessions" feature? I rely on my memory for many of the stories, and the 1970s was quite a long time ago, so I can occasionally misremember things. If you catch any errors or have your childhood TV favorites to share, send your corrections and confessions to [email protected]. Your contributions make this podcast even better!
It's summertime (apparently!) and you know what that means - the end of term, pre-summer holidays feeling! Oh, the excitement of those school holidays in the 70s. The weather was better, and we could play on the school field at playtime. We'd beg the teachers to have lessons outside (usually without success), and on the last day of term, we'd bring in toys and games. Those were the days when the prospect of six weeks' holiday felt like an eternity of playtime and fun.
Remember those imported shows that BBC trotted out every school holiday from the 60s to the 80s? They were a significant part of our childhood TV experience.
One show that keeps coming up in your comments, messages, and emails is the classic "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." Ah, just hearing that theme music takes me back in time. The excitement of being seven years old, sitting on the carpet in front of the telly, and being transported to an exotic desert island with Robinson Crusoe.
The series had it all: drama, adventure, and a touch of violence that was quite gripping for young minds. As I revisited a few episodes after over 40 years, it's still pretty good! The first episode was incredibly dramatic, even in black and white. The scenes of a terrible storm and the shipwreck were quite convincing. There were flashbacks to Crusoe's earlier life, which made the storytelling engaging. It was a French-German co-production dubbed in English, and the theme music was the icing on the cake.
The show was shown almost every school holiday between 1965 and the early 1980s, and the BBC surely got their money's worth from it. Robinson Crusoe's adventures on the deserted island and his friendship with Friday, the man he rescued from cannibals, captivated our imaginations.
"The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" is the epitome of 70s children's holiday TV memory. It's no wonder that it's etched in the hearts of those who experienced it. If you have any memories of watching this show or other holiday fixtures like "The Flashing Blade," "Hersey's Adventures of Tintin," or the Czech cartoon "The Mole," I'd love to hear from you!
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