In my memory about the only month when some summer sunshine was more likely than gloom laden skies and rain in my childhood was May. If a bookie was taking a bet on which months in Scotland would have more than a total of 30 hours of blue skies and sunshine, then he would probably refuse to accept any bets on May. The summer school holidays, in my memory at least, were a lottery when it came to sunshine. No great surprise then that the BBC summer holiday morning TV schedule was heavily watched. Year after year the schedule was almost entirely the same bill of foreign fare, and not always well dubbed. Best of all was The Flashing Blade from France, at least until our heroes reached The Castle. Robinson Crusoe, also a French offering, was also not bad. But France's Belle and Sebastian was just pure boring: right up there with White Horses, was that German or Yugoslavian? Anyway, it was boring too. For cheap scary camp, Germany's Singing Ringing Tree has to take the prize. If that didn't put a kid off evil dwarfs, nothing would. I think most people in Scotland in the years it was on TV knew that at least one Scottish regiment stationed in Germany was known to the locals as The Poison Dwarfs. Was the Boy from Lapland, the one with the catchy Scandinavian yodelling in the theme tune, on the summer schedule? I think it was, but I could be wrong.  Ah, those dreich summer holiday mornings. That was before every cartoon had an annoying brat character that the viewing kids were supposed to identify with. Can anyone remember Scrappy Doo without wanting to puke?