Worse things happen at sea

When I was a young lad in the UK, back in the time when going to school meant fighting off the occasional velociraptor and avoiding the shimmering pools of sulphur, there was a thing called ‘pirate radio’. Pirate radio largely came about because in UK in the 1960s, there was the BBC and…er, well – that was it. If you didn’t want to listen to the beeb, you were largely out of luck. Radio Luxembourg (208 metres, medium wave) had a good few listeners, but Caroline, broadcast from a ship moored in the North Sea, became an instant hit, as it played whatever it wanted to. OK, I wasn’t in the thick of it (I’m not that old), but I do remember hearing it broadcast, and hearing people say how it changed the face of music. Happy days.

So why the meandering down memory lane? Because The Boat That Rocked (2009), a feel-good comedy by Richard Curtis that isn’t a bloody full-on love story, brought back memories – and good ones. It’s based on ‘a pirate radio station’ in the North Sea, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Caroline’s ship, The Ross Revenge. All similarity to DJs living or dead is entirely coincidental, but many of the characters in the movie are a conglomeration of several well-known (in the 60s and 70s) radio personalities. The initiated will instantly recognize Simon Dee, Tony Blackburn and ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris in the loosely disguised portmanteaux.

As you might have expected, it’s a gentle comedy with a few edgy bits and a couple of will-they-won’t-they love stories chucked in. For a change, instead of everyone being middle class, neurotic and pretty, the characters have scruffy clothes, bad habits are are a million nautical miles from Hugh Grant playing Hugh Grant in every single film he’s in. The cast shocked me, as it has a much weightier big-name cast than I expected; I spent the first ten to fifteen minutes saying “Oh, that’s…”. Among the big names are Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport, Rhys Ifans and none other than Philip Seymour Hoffman. OK, it’s a Curtis script and they can’t embellish it much, but it’s good to see them enjoying the romp, alongside practically everyone who’s ever been in a UK TV comedy in the last five years.

It’s escapist nonsense about life and love aboard a pirate radio boat in the sixties. There are a few sub-plots, the biggest of which sees Davenport and Branagh’s characters trying to take the station off air, a mystery DJ and a lesbian love interest that’s not as saucy as you might imagine. The point of this film is the vibe, man – the collective cool and toe-tapping tunes of the swinging sixties. Don’t expect too much, and I bet you’ll find yourself enjoying it. Think of it as a pantomime – good guys versus bad guys, but without the ‘he’s behind you’ part.

The whole thing has the mushy-smushy feel-goodness about it that some may find a little cloying. Just relax, enjoy the gags and the music and the story. Groovy, baby.

135 mins.