Sometimes people share a craze for something – collecting stamps, mackerel fishing, dog grooming, ice-dancing, football, Laurel and Hardy… and this shared love of something can make people the closest friends. It doesn’t matter how strange the craze seems to other people, it sticks the crazies together like magic glue. Me, John Harwich and Richard Hancock shared a passion at school for the 2000 AD comic and for anything to do with Star Wars. We’d often be found in a corner of the playground discussing Judge Dredd or how a light sabre might actually work, while other kids skipped or kicked a ball past us, thinking what a bunch of weirdos we were.
In Deep Down Cowboys three Russian sailors on a submarine share a love of cowboy films. You might not know much about Russian sailors or cowboy films but that won’t stop you enjoying the show. Just let me tell you, cowboy films is a particularly crazy craze for these Russian sailors to have and one that gets them into a lot of trouble, as you’ll see.
Crazes come and go and people might look back and wonder why on earth they got so excited about stamps or mackerel. But the connection between once-upon-a-time mackerel lovers often lives on – either they’re still friends or they remember each other fondly for the rest of their days. Who’d have thought I’d be telling you about John Harwich and Richard Hancock after all this time, eleven years after 2000AD has come and gone? I salute you, fellow sci-fi nuts of Junior 4, wherever you may be now. We were the best of friends.
Daniel Jamieson
