“The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”?
(First broadcast in the USA in 1964; and on BBC TV (UK) in 1965 and repeated until 1981)
Are you haunted by that Robinson Crusoe Theme Tune? What memories does it bring back? In this article I suggest that searching for that haunting theme tune over many years can be likened to our searching for times long gone by when life was a lot simpler and less complicated than it is today, even if it was a lot harder - just like Robinson Crusoe’s life on that island. It’s not just nostalgia that we are after but a better way of life from long gone days; and that wonderful Theme Tune from “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” reminds us just how far modern technology has removed us from the realities more simpler life. Maybe that’s why so many people are still searching today for that wonderfully endearing and hauntingly popular theme tune. (See index below.)
See INDEX below for all the pages on this site.
Do you remember
Click middle to start the video.
There is an index of all the pages on this site below and it includes everything you need to know about the making of the series, film credits, the 1990 CD booklet text, the 2011 limited edition vinyl single, the first BBC TV schedules, a picture gallery, all about Robert Hoffman, and details of my own research in trying to find a copy of that haunting theme tune! Also included is a recording of a BBC Radio 4 programme “Robinson Crusoe Rescued Again” in which I was interveiwed.
The original vinyl single
cover from 1965.
The original vinyl
single from 1965.
CD cover 1990.
One of the 1990 VHS
video tape covers.
CD cover 1997.
DVD cover 2007.
In 2006 the 4-part German version was released on DVD by
Concorde Home Entertainment
using restored 35mm prints.
The exclusive Limited Edition
7” vinyl single released by
Silva Screen Records on
28th November 2011.
Silva Screen Records pioneered the releases of the CD’s and DVD’s.
Robert Hoffman
1963
2004
2007
(Also at the foot of each page.)
1963
1962
The exclusive Audio CD
including booklet about
recordings history etc.
released in July 2021.
No. SILCD1646
12″ double LP on ‘Azure Blue’ vinyl
July 2021
Robert Hoffman. RIP: I’ve just learnt of the death of Robert Hoffman (30th August 1939 – 4th July 2022), aged 82, a handsome blond-haired Austrian actor who became familiar to generations of British children as the star of the classic black-and-white television series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, first shown here in the UK in1965, featuring one of the most memorable theme tunes for so many, created for the English version by Robert Mellin and Gian-Piero Reverberi; up there, for me, with On White Horses.
The series was Hoffmann’s first professional acting job and became a staple of BBC children’s summer holiday schedules for many years, and the series led to many roles in German language films. He did, however, have one more moment of stardom in the UK when he was chosen to play the U-boat Captain in the 1980 film The Sea Wolves, also starring Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, David Niven, Trevor Howard and Patrick Macnee.
