Like many of the other reviewers, I was totally captivated by this when I first watched it at the age of 9. I remember being very in awe of this young lad who could actually drive a car.
Through adult eyes, it's not quite the masterpiece of memory. Six and a half hours is an awfully long time given that very little happens in most of the episodes, except that we move on gradually from Devon to Edinburgh via the Lake District. One or two glaring coincidences help keep John and Susan on Tom's trail, and for the rest, they just are just able to follow on, even in the days when the M5 didn't stretch as far down as Devon.
Susan is everything we remember - pretty, brilliant, practical, sympathetic, pretty, uncomplaining, a sexy Scottish accent, and most of all, pretty. John is a whiny young man who could give the Pacific Ocean lessons in wetness. It isn't hard to guess which of the two would go on to a stellar career, and which, er, wouldn't.
My strongest memories were of Hilary Minster as the sinister motorcyclist, whose regular appearances were usually the cue for the cliffhanger and the end credits. While the first few episodes have the same structure every time - J & S shake off Hilary, follow Tom and the gang to a new town, only to encounter Hilary again - the programme loses momentum once Hilary is written out. It's not obvious why he is so effective - he has very few lines - but he really was scary at the time.
Occasionally, Outward Bound people would turn up to give us all stern warnings about wearing seat belts or not going canoeing without proper preparation. We could do without them. There is also a lot of library footage of the Edinburgh Tattoo, which serves to remind us why we were so bored with the Tattoo when it used to be live on the television.
The grown-ups tend to repeat themselves as well - Brian Peck teases Glyn Houston, who returns impassive looks into the middle distance, looking like a rubberised Easter Island statue in a loud jacket. Peter Copley is rather wasted on the last couple of episodes. At the end, everyone gives in rather easily.
But it is great fun to remember watching it first time round. It really did stick in the mind, and it gave us Jan Francis, after all.
