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The Boat That Rocked (15)

• Consumer Advice: Contains strong language and moderate sex references
• Run time: 2 hours 14 mins

• Genre: Comedy
• Release date: 3rd April 2009

• Starring: Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gemma Arterton
• Directed by: Richard Curtis

• Official Website: www.theboatthatrocked.co.uk
• Distributor: Universal Pictures

Plot Synopsis

From the writer of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Love Actually” comes The Boat That Rocked by Richard Curtis. A comedy about rock and roll and boys and a boat.

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.

However, pirate stations have come to the attention of an establishment that’s out for blood against the drug takers, lawbreakers and bottom-bashing fornicators of a once great nation. In an era when the stuffy corridors of power stifle anything approaching youthful exuberance, pirate radio becomes public enemy number 1. The explosive movement of rock ‘n’ roll clashes with the government’s Marine Offences Act, an attempt to outlaw the pirates and remove their ghastly influence from the land. All this is spearheaded by the fearsome Minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh), his aide Dominic Twatt, and assistant Miss Clitt.

Fleeing from the government ships, the Boat of Rock hits a rock and sinks in the middle of the North Sea – to the indifference of the politicians, but the dismay of the fans. And in a Dunkirk-style moment, hundreds of local boats travel out in the middle of the night to rescue their favourite broadcasters from death by drowning. The Boat That Rocked is an ensemble comedy – where the romance is between the young people of the 60’s, and pop music. It’s about a band of DJs that captivate Britain, playing the music that defines a generation and standing up to a government that, incomprehensibly, prefers jazz.