The Flashing Blade

As long as we have done our best
Then no one can do more
And life and love and happiness
Are well worth fighting for

Perhaps because this year's school summer holidays have just finished I have been reminiscing about the TV shows that I remember being shown during the long break when I was a kid.

The series that I particularly cherish were - for some reason - all foreign productions that were dubbed into English when we saw them.

I've looked them up on IMDB. Here we go.

The Flashing Blade (theme tune lyrics above) was apparently Le Chevalier Tempête in its original form.

Thats when I softly sigh
On white horses
Snow white horses
Let me ride away
Away
Away

White Horses (another fine theme song) started off as Ferien in Lipizza.

Belle and Sebastian was originally, and unsurprisingly, Belle et Sébastien. A great vocal theme tune as I recall but no lyrics, "Angelina, Angelina don't let them take my Belle!"

Robinson Crusoe, and last but not least The Singing Ringing Tree.

The Singing Ringing Tree was an East German fable - and possibly Communist allegory - called Das Singende, klingende Bäumchen and I am still, deep in my heart, afraid of the soddin' evil dwarf in it.

It is of course entirely possible that these shows were shown at another time and didn't comprise the background to our long, languid summer breaks, but that's how I remember it.