In 1966 – British pop music’s finest era – the BBC played just 2 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 – over half the population of Britain – listened to the pirates every single day.
Recently expelled from school, Carl (Tom Sturridge) has been sent by his jet-set 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 ‘n’ roll DJ’s. They are led by The Count (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), big, brash, American, a 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 possessing an almost uncanny ability to have sex with anything remotely resembling a woman; Wee Small Hours Bob, a hairy late night DJ, whose hobbies are folk music and drugs; Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke), possessor of the smallest intelligence known to mankind; On The Hour John, the newsreader and Angus ‘The Nut’ Nutsford, who may be the most annoying man in Britain. They set about helping Carl on his quest to find himself by, well, mostly trying to find him someone to have sex with.
Life on the North Sea is eventful. Simon finds the woman of his dreams and is married on the boat…only to be left by his bride 11 hours later. Greatest DJ in Britain, Gavin (Rhys Ifans) returns from his drug tour of America to his rightful position as greatest DJ in Britain – and clashes with the Count: A confrontation that ends in a dramatic and dangerous battle of nerve. And Carl discovers that his real father is one of the DJs. Tragically for him, it’s Wee Small Hours Bob, together with his beard.
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost and Kenneth Branagh
Directed by: Richard Curtis