It's certainly true that the kids don't "casually pick up" the things we picked up, but they're not thick! - they pick up different things.

I don't suppose we picked up the things our grandparents thought were essential.

I'm always impressed by how important children's tv programmes are to us and to them - how can they live without having known The Woodentops? - but to them, Postman Pat is just as wonderful, the Clangers are as vital to their history as Rag Tag and Bobtail or Bill and Ben were to ours.

I remember singing "For she is the flower of Killarny" from "Singing Together" when I was about 9 years old, most of us were in love with her in fact, well, with the pen drawing of the Irish beauty that headed the page, and we all identified with Black Sir Harry and that last knight who declared, "my bride, my queen, thou must with me" in "the Red the Green and the Yellow". The kids would laugh at such songs now, just at their grandchildren will laugh at their songs.

We can try to pass on to our children the things we think are important, but the tradition is, and should be, a living one that grows.