Peanut

It is1972 in the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister, Ted Heath, is declaring a

three day working week and a State of Emergency as the Coalminer s Strike begins

to bite. Abba are topping the charts and Monty Python s Flying Circus are offering us

something completely different on BBC2.

Behind the backdrop of this we follow John Caswell, a football mad 15 year old from

the Midlands as he embarks on his fi nal year at Kettering Grammar School.

We suffer with him as he agonizes over his O levels in the summer of 1973 culminating

in mixed results and fi nds himself working in an offi ce in a Builders Merchants with

little idea of how his life is going to take off.

Later that year John meets and becomes totally infl uenced by his sister s boyfriend

who is in the Merchant Navy. Convinced this is the life for him John then goes to

the National Sea Training School in Gravesend and we follow his exciting passage

through the three month Lifeboat and Effi cient Deck Hand course before embarking on

his fi rst trip to sea in September 1974 onboard the Anco Empress .

We then follow him on an adventure across the oceans and upon the high seas around

the World, crossing the Equator, learning his new skills and transforming a shy, timid

and naïve young man into an adult via Rotterdam, Montreal, New York, New Orleans,

Rio De Janeiro, Durban and back to Rotterdam with hilarious and embarrassing

consequences as he comes to terms with his ever changing environments and the social

demands of a work hard / play hard regime.