Talking of unrequited love, that reminds me of Russell Dalrymple. “Who?” you may ask. Well, he was actually Bob Balaban who played the part of Russell in the Seinfeld series on television.

If I mention that he was the television producer who was going to back Jerry and George in their proposed series about “nothing”, you might remember him. I freely admit that I had to research to find out the name of the character Bob Balaban played but his one-sided love affair with Elaine Benes (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is seared into my memory.

There was something innocent and wistful about his puppydog love for Elaine so that, although his story remains funny, it is also quite poignant. To give up everything and join Greenpeace in the belief that Elaine cared about whales, now that is devotion. And to be lost overboard from a tiny boat in pitching seas when trying to stop whalers, well, it is melodramatic but also sad.

Like all of Seinfeld, the story is a slice from life, exaggerated and pushed to the borders of sanity. But it contains that core of truth that all good fiction has. It just might be true, somewhere, somehow…

Clive