The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (TV series)

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Directed by	Jean Sacha
Starring	Robert Hoffmann
Narrated by	Lee Payant
Theme music composer	Robert Mellin, Gian-Piero Reverberi
Country of origin	France
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	Claire Monis
Running time	25 min
Release
Original network	BBC1
Picture format	35mm film
First shown in	1964 (US) ; 1965 (UK)
Original release	12 October 1965 – 4 January 1966

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (French: Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoë) was a French children's television drama series made by Franco London Films (a.k.a. FLF Television Paris). The show was first aired in Germany in October 1964 under the title Robinson Crusoe as four 90-minute episodes by co-producers ZDF television, and syndicated in the USA the same year. It was first aired in the UK in 1965 as a 13-part serial. This English dubbed version produced by Henry Deutschmeister also had a new musical soundtrack composed by Robert Mellin and P. Reverberi which gave the serial a more strident and appealing theme tune than the music composed by Georges Van Parys for the French/German original. The production concentrated not only on events on the island but included Crusoe's other adventures, told in flashback.

The series was based on the first of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe novels, but is perhaps best remembered for the haunting theme music composed for the English-language version, recreated since by bands such as The Art of Noise. According to the radio commentator Glenn Mitchell, "The theme tune, with its rumbling introductory notes suggesting the rolling waves of the on-screen title sequence remains distinctive, as does the full incidental score, comprising numerous cues that in each case represent some part of Crusoe's existence. The score combines the maritime idiom of the late 17th and early 18th centuries with some very 1960s influences—(later, composer Gian Piero Reverberi's Rondò Veneziano re-imagined Vivaldi for the 20th century, a recognisably similar project.)"

For at least three generations of UK children, this was the definitive TV version of Daniel Defoe's classic novel. After its debut in 1965, it soon became a staple part of the BBC's school summer holiday schedules. Often shown Mondays to Fridays, in the mid '70s, it was last screened in the early 1980s, after which the BBC's contract for repeat screenings expired. It is the story of a young Englishman's struggle for survival on an unknown desert island, and his recollections of his adventures prior to the shipwreck that brought him there, in particular his involvement with slave traders. He has his pet dog Dick, a parrot and a goat for company. In the latter half of the story a group of cannibals arrive on his island; he repels them by means of explosives, and in the process rescues a man from becoming their next meal; he names him Friday. In the end he comes to terms with his less than exemplary past, and becomes a better man thanks to his experiences on the island, befriending Friday and putting his life in order.

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