14 The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

First  watched : Uncertain

This  was  a  13 -part  serialization  coming  towards  the  end  of  its  run  on  8/9/69. It  was  an  expensive   French  production  with  English  dubbing  originally  made  in  1964.  Its  international  success  owed  much  to  the  fact  that  the  story  is  necessarily  told  mainly  as  a  voiceover    so  that  the  usual  problems  with  dubbing  were  largely  avoided. The  English  narration  was  provided  by  a  Lee  Payant.

The  series  was  often  repeated, usually  as  part  of  the  Summer  Holiday  schedule  and  was  last  broadcast  as  recently  as  1982. I  must  have  caught  it  at  some  point  but  it's  left  no  impression. I  can't  even  recall  if  it  was  my  first  introduction  to  the story.  Viewing  Episode  1  hasn't  triggered  anything, just  the  observations  that  Robert  Hoffman  playing  Crusoe  may  have  been  the  inspiration  for  Sting's  Police-era  bouffant  and  the  model  boat   used  in  the  shipwreck  at  the  beginning  is  heroically  unconvincing.