The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (TV Series)

The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe (TV Series)

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 George 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. "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.")