Peanut

It is 1972 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 this backdrop, we follow John Caswell, a football mad 15-year-old from the Midlands as he embarks on his final year at Kettering Grammar School. We suffer with him as he agonises over his O levels in the summer of 1973, culminating in mixed results, and finds himself working in an office at a Builders Merchants with little idea of how his life is going to take off.

Later that year, John meets and becomes totally influenced 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. We follow his exciting passage through the three-month Lifeboat and Efficient Deck Hand course before embarking on his first 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 from a shy, timid, and naive young man into an adult. His journey takes him 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.