'A blissful slice of sun-kissed pop'? The cast of Balamory. Photograph: Jaap Buitendjyk/BBC
When you spend much of your working life listening to and writing about a bewildering array of music, it's not always easy to turn off your critical faculties. This, depending on your outlook, can be regarded as either a hassle or an opportunity. Away from the safety of Last.fm or iTunes lies the soundtrack to the real world, and it can be ugly: yards and yards of dodgy themes and incidental music knocked out by hollow men bitterly swilling dreams of greatness down the plughole like so much filthy dishwater. Most people regard this stuff as musical Polyfilla, and much of it is. But once you give it the courtesy of treating it as real music, personal preferences swiftly emerge and real pleasure can be gained.
For example, my house is currently awash with music from kids' TV, and I'm here to tell you that there is treasure to be found. The theme to Engie Benjy - written by Clint Boon - is a personal favourite. I was deeply indifferent to Inspiral Carpets, but this slamming Born-Slippy-for-bairns is easily the best thing Boon has ever done. Postman Pat, meanwhile, remains an unimpeachable slice of finger-pickin' folk whimsy (the middle eight in particular wouldn't sound out of place on Rubber Soul) while 64 Zoo Lane has the ghost of Jimmy Van Heusen haunting its verse. If only Sammy Cahn could have had a go at the lyrics.
But in the end it's the Balamory stuff that takes the gold medal. Not the theme tune - that's clearly banal, shortbread-tin toss for the masses. You really need to get the Strike Up the Band album for the good stuff. Archie's Great Inventions, Groovy Solutions - which opens with the classic psych-pop line: "Did I hear you say that you've got a confusion?" - is a blissful slice of sun-kissed, call-and-response 60s pop that never loses its lustre. If anything, PC Plum's Bohemian Rhapsody tribute ("Follow the clue! Follow the clue! Plum we need you! Plum we need you!") is even better, a wildly ambitious epic in four movements that suggests Plummy has been hitting something harder than milky tea between shifts.
While my two youngest are faffing with their pasta I'll happily skip back and forth between these two songs; I'll even lobby hard to watch Engie Benjy on CITV rather than endure the sub-Barbie Girl racket that thuds over the start of Lazy Town. I actively like these songs on their own merits. In fact, I think I prefer them to quite a lot of stuff on my iPod. I bet I'm not alone, either. Time to leave your irony at the door and 'fess up: what are your favourite TV themes and children's tunes?
