NOT SO TOTAL RECALL AT ALL

I recently commented that I have a memory like a sieve.

From the vast ocean of childhood the things I recall the best is the flotsam floating on top: the toys, books, records and ornaments.

Entire TV shows have forsaken me and I have no recollection of them at all. Is this a common problem in your late fifties or should I be worried? Whats it like for you?

There are however low murmurs in the deep trenches of my memory, veiled echoes of other things from childhood. Some of these are TV programmes, where I can just about hear a distant theme tune or half-glimpse an blurred opening or sketchy scene.

Dipping into this shadowy pool of ghosts I can feel the following stirring, which you may yourselves recall far better than me:

Belle and Sebastian is just such a glimmer. I recall it was in black and white and featured a very cute kid and a large dog. The lad may have been wearing a turtle neck sweater. It was Swiss or Belgian. Maybe even alpine. I remember that the title music was hauntingly gorgeous but have no inkling of it now. Do you remember this 1960's show?

Similarly haunting was the theme tune to Robinson Crusoe, which I can actually still hum. I can still see the monochrome Robinson running through the surf and taking gull eggs from the cliffs. Not sure how he ate them. Presumably raw. The rest of the show has been washed away I'm afraid. Do you remember it?

Its both pleasing and frustrating in equal measure to only recall snippets of TV from the Sixties. OK, I can google anything these days and re-live the whole thing but I'm trying to swirl the sediment and see what rises first.

Do you suffer from patchy recall of childhood TV?