Camberwick Green

If you saw this as a kid, as soon as you hear the chiming mandolin notes of the opening theme you're mesmerised. This was the model for a thousand kids' shows, but what it has that most of them lack is that quality of calm. It really strikes me, seeing it again after so many years, how deeply it feels rooted in the past. Not the 1960s; with its farm smocks, mutton-chop sidies, penny farthings, windmills and crank-started motor cars, it feels more like the Edwardian era or even earlier. It's all about stability, continuity, and scepticism about change - several eps revolve around some art of the modern 'grid' going wrong, and the villagers having to rely on the old ways as maintained by Windy Miller. This is very much the opposite to the message of kids' programmes today; in fact these seem to be values which have now largely died out, and the battle for modernity (even in the mind) won.

So this is now, even more than at the time, a haven for those of us who feel bruised by the avalanche of improvement coming down on our heads. It's nothing short of amazing that it was created by a total of only seven people - today, with all the improvements, it would take at least a hundred. The stories are nothing much - maybe that's the attraction - but what really makes it is that fantastic acoustic music by Freddie Philipps. He deserves an MBE for it, at least - it just takes you away from yourself and into a better place: Camberwick Green. I suppose he was also responsible for the sound of Windy Miller's sails going round which, once you've heard it, it with you for life.