The Boat That Rocked – 2009 | 116 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Richard Curtis drew on memories from his childhood of late nights listening to pirate radio stations like Radio Caroline and Radio London for this disappointing tribute to mid-’60s broadcasts from ships and marine structures anchored just outside UK territorial waters. This overlong, self-indulgent and unfocused ship-bound comedy is amusing without many genuine laughs and wastes a treasure trove of acting talent, all of whom seem to having more fun than the viewer. Bill Nighy plays, well, a louche Bill Nighy in a paisley shirt, Kenneth Branagh is the uptight minister trying to ban the broadcasts, and a nominal Philip Seymour Hoffman does a turn as the radical American “god of the airwaves” The Count. One area the film can’t be faulted is the soundtrack, which is a virtual cornucopia of 60s classics. The Boat That Rocked was filmed for a total of 14 weeks. Five of those weeks took place in Portland Harbour, Dorset, shooting on a boat called the Timor Challenger.

In 1966 – British pop music’s finest era – the BBC played just two hours of rock and roll every week. But pirate radio played rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day. And 25 million people – more than half the population of Britain – listened to the pirates every single day.

Recently expelled from school, Carl (Tom Sturridge) has been sent by his mother to find some direction in life by visiting his godfather, Quentin (Bill Nighy). However, Quentin is the boss of Radio Rock, a pirate radio station in the middle of the North Sea, populated by an eclectic crew of rock-and-roll deejays

They are led by The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – big, brash, American god of the airwaves and totally in love with the music. He’s faithfully backed up by his co-broadcasters Dave (Nick Frost) – ironic, intelligent and cruelly funny; Simon (Chris O’Dowd) – super-nice and searching for true love; Midnight Mark (Tom Wisdom) – enigmatic, handsome and a man of few words; Wee Small Hours Bob (Ralph Brown) – the late-night deejay, whose hobbies are folk music and drugs; Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke) – possessor of the smallest intelligence known to mankind; On-the-Hour John (Will Adamsdale) – the newsreader; and Angus “The Nut” Nutsford (Rhys Darby) – possibly the most annoying man in Britain.

Life on the North Sea is eventful. Simon finds the woman of his dreams, Elenore (January Jones), and is married on the boat…only to be left by his bride the next day. Gavin (Rhys Ifans) returns from his drug tour of America to his rightful position as greatest deejay in Britain and, in doing so, clashes with The Count. And Carl discovers the opposite sex and who his real father is.

Meanwhile, pirate stations have come to the attention of government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), who is out for the blood of these lawbreakers. In an era when the stuffy corridors of power stifle anything approaching youthful exuberance, Dormandy seizes the chance to score a political goal and recruits the similarly conservative Twatt (Jack Davenport) to introduce legislation to close the station down. The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act is passed in an effort to outlaw the pirates and to remove their ghastly influence from the land once and for all.

What results is a literal storm on the high seas. With Radio Rock in peril, its devoted fans rally together and stage an epic Dunkirk-style hundred-boat rescue to save their deejay heroes. Some things may come to an end, but rock and roll never dies.