Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

At some point when I was in my early teenage years, I found myself with a video tape of classic Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons, which we’d got from an uncle or from some friends. In the end it doesn’t matter, because what mattered was the joy the video brought: these were the genuine classics of Warner Bros. animation, the likes of What’s Opera, Doc?, in which Elmer Fudd dresses up as Siegfried and sings “Kill the wabbit!” to the tune of Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkryries”, and Duck Dodgers in the 24½^th Century, the second-funniest piece of filmmaking about Mutually Assured Destruction.