What does the UK government have in common with the leader of a crack commando unit sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, promptly escaping from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground, today still wanted by the US government and surviving as soldiers of fortune?

For alert students in the regular MJ class – who like me were avid watchers of early Saturday evening television in the mid-1980s – the mind will boggle at this very thought. Numerous similarities are no doubt springing to mind between the respective cast lists. Now now, settle down at the back (yes, that means you regular MJ columnist, you know who you are).