My week has been haunted, listeners. It’s been haunted by a jingle, and certainly not the kind of high quality jingle that’s used within the Timewasting show on Resonance FM, which is what you’re currently being enormously entertained by. No, this jingle appeared on a little-watched cable television channel on Tuesday morning, extolling the virtues of a particular insurance company, Hastings Insurance. Their website tells me that they are Battling to save me money, which gives you a hint as to their marketing strategy: to utilize that 11th century bloodbath, the Battle Of Hastings, to give them some kind of brand recognition. To be fair, the town of Hastings doesn’t have a great deal else going for it. It’s a notorious drug dealing area, and the last time I entered the town by road I was confronted with the sight of a body being carried out of a building by two queasy looking police officers. The seafront can’t rival that of Brighton, or even Eastbourne; it would have an air of decaying grandeur, had there ever been any grandeur there to begin with. The pier is particularly grim, deserted except for a few bored employees in the amusement arcade, for whom the counting of 10 pence pieces provides limited amusement. So yes. If you’re going to call yourselves Hastings Insurance, probably best to focus on The Battle.

They’ve created a cheeky cartoon character called Harry Hastings for these adverts, who, in stark contrast to King Harold’s fate at the Battle Of Hastings, doesn’t wander around the screen with an arrow embedded in his eye. In fact, he’s surprisingly chirpy, considering; perhaps he’s not aware that in the real battle, he was defeated by William The Conqueror, ushering in an era of Norman rule.

“If you want to beat your renewal quote,” he says, “call me, Harry Hastings, on Oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, 1066.”

British listeners, or those well acquainted with English History, will recognise 1066 as the year that the Battle Of Hastings was fought. This jingle stuck in my head all week, to the exclusion of many other far more important things. On Thursday morning I was striding across Vauxhall Bridge, the morning light bathing Battersea Power Station in a glorious glow, the River Thames glistening in the foreground in a sight of exquisite beauty, but all I could think of was

“Call me, Harry Hastings, on Oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, 1066.”

Then it struck me. It struck me that this insistent little tune that was firmly embedded in my head, could form the central plank of history teaching in schools. We all know that the Battle Of Hastings was fought in 1066, but many other important dates are forgotten by kids, mainly because they were never really listening in the first place. I mean, The Battle of Bannockburn, anyone? No, me neither. But put it in a jingle:

“Concerned about Scottish Independence? Call me, Robert The Bruce, on: Oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, 1314!”

Suddenly, it’s embedded in your skull. It doesn’t have to apply to battles, either. It works for absolutely anything.

“Need to repeal your corn laws? Call me, Benjamin Disraeli, on: Oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, 1846.”

Or maybe something from a world of history outside Britain.

“Need to discover Radium? Call me, Marie Curie, on Oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, 1898.”

Who needs Simon Schama to bring history alive, when a four note tune and a freephone telephone number format can cement the pivotal dates of World History in our children’s heads? I wouldn’t call myself a teacher – I mean, I’ve read a few books, but I couldn’t pretend to be a teacher, exactly – but I do feel that this could be a significant music-stroke-leaning based development.

Never let it be said that this show never made history fun.