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Rocking on the High Seas
Pirate Radio inspired by the true tale of DJs broadcasting rock music from a boat in the North Sea
From left: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans and Emma Thompson star in Richard Curtis’ rock and roll comedy Pirate Radio (Photo: Alex Bailey)
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If every one of your favorite supporting comic relief actors were cast in a film mashup of Almost Famous and Good Morning Vietnam, you’d have the ensemble period flick, Pirate Radio (The Boat That Rocked). Consummate British director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) also wrote the comedy, inspired by the true tale of pirate DJs broadcasting rock music to Britain from a boat anchored in the North Sea.
Rosy-cheeked schoolboy Carl, played by Tom Sturridge, is expelled from school for smoking pot, and sent asea by his mother Charlotte (Emma Thompson) with the misdirected intent of straightening him out. The inexperienced youth is left in the charge of his godfather Quentin (Bill Nighy), a product of London’s swinging sixties who wears a brightly colored leisure suit and ascot while casually captaining his ragtag crew of DJs, featuring Sean of the Dead’s Nick Frost as large and unlikely lothario Dave; former Sienna Miller flame Rhys Ifans, cleaned up nice from his Notting Hill days, who sports a literal feather in his cap as darling DJ Gavin Cavanagh; Flight of the Concords Rhys Darby’s Angus provides on-air comedy reminiscent of Adrian Cronauer; Tom Wisdom is Midnight Mark, a sexgod of few words, who bides his time sleeping or sexing the hoards of fans who arrive with provisions by the boatload; and Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the Count, the lone American onboard and unofficial leader of the pack.
The fictional tale set aboard the ship christened Radio Rock, is modeled after the short-lived but real adventures of Radio Caroline—named after J.F.K.’s daughter—which began broadcasting in March of 1964, funded by advertisers. Unlike U.S. radio’s commercial funding, European radio was publicly financed, and programming was determined by state-owned monopolies offering something for everyone at different types of day. In 1966, two years after the Beatles’ invasion, the BBC devoted only 45 minutes of their daily programming to pop music. Just three weeks after its initial transmission, demand proved high, and Radio Caroline had seven million listeners.
Never letting you forget you’re on a boat, the camera gently rolls in the wake of the North Sea, while the rogue DJs’ drinking, drugging and debauchery pervades 24 hours of rock broadcasts, highlighted by a stacked soundtrack, targeting BBC-dependent, musically-deprived youth. But Radio Rock’s lawless venture catches the attention of Parliament’s stoic conservative Sir Alistair Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), eager to dismantle the pirates by any means necessary, who assigns Dominic Twatt (Jack Davenport) to the task. Twatt produces the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, a bill threatening to end the pirates’ reign on the high seas.
Characters abound in Pirate Radio, as the motley crew fights for their right to rock the English masses.
Opens November 13 at the Angelika Film Center.