The Quiet Resonance: Watership Down, Duran Duran, and the English Soul of Early 90s Kirkholt
Cast your mind back to the early 1990s in England. More than just a decade, it was a particular feeling – a quiet, understated hum that settled over the landscape, seeped into our culture, and resonated deeply in places like Kirkholt, Rochdale. It was a pre-internet, pre-PlayStation era, where the world outside your window held a different kind of magic, and a certain animated film, made over a decade prior, seemed to encapsulate the very essence of Englishness. That film was the 1978 adaptation of Richard Adams' Watership Down . It wasn't just a story about rabbits; it was a visceral, often brutal, yet ultimately hopeful epic of survival, community, and the enduring spirit of the land. Its themes of ancient landscapes, fierce loyalty, and the quiet heroism of the everyday resonated with a particular English sensibility. In the early 90s, this feeling for Watership Down wasn't confined to art-house cinemas or academic discussions; it was palpable on the streets, woven in...
