THE MOVIE PAGES presents in THE BOAT THAT ROCKED theboatthatrocked.htm

What Do The Critics Say?

"Musically, the film is very strong, with a great selection of tunes played throughout, full of life and energy. A strong cast make the best of their material. Philip Seymour Hoffman is wonderful as always as alpha male DJ 'The Count', squaring up again newcomer rival Gavin. Nick Frost has fun as Dave, making the most of the station's groupies, and newcomer Tom Sturridge is endearingly earnest as Carl, an awkward teenager whose mother has mysteriously sent him to join the ship's crew."
Jennie Kermode EYE FOR FILM
"Instead of charming us with more tender tales of true romance Curtis has penned a love letter to the Swinging Sixties and the glory days of pirate radio. His film is an epic valentine to an era when rock ’n’ roll was the most dangerous game in town and 'deejays' were gods in human form."
Allan Hunter DAILY EXPRESS
"It matters not whether you were around at the time or not, although, if, like me, you were a teenager in the late 60s, the music will set your toes tapping endlessly. There are countless memorable moments (including Rhys Ifans as the infamous Gavin), and a diverse cast of perfectly cast flawed individuals whose faults endear them to us."
Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE
"Drinking, swearing, frilly clothes and nautical adventures: all the key elements of a pirate movie are present and correct. Welcome to The Boat That Rocked, a film inspired by the pirate radio stations that brought pop music to Britain in the Sixties. Philip Seymour Hoffman is always brilliant and so is The Count."
SUN ONLINE
"The film is a nod in the direction of the influential Radio Caroline, which reshaped the industry in that period and the rebellious nature of the DJs, who live truly hedonistic lives, reflects the era and exactly what the music of that time promoted. The notion that people were carefree and intrinsically, if subtly, rebellious is made abundantly clear throughout the film with the great British people tuning in to listen to their favourite voices from Radio Rock."
Andy Jalfon TVNZ

"For a script that relies more on character-driven than situational comedy, it’s the perfs that count, and these are thankfully strong. As the devil-may-care Count, Hoffman melds well with the Brit cast, though it’s Nighy who predictably steals the show with his uniquely dry delivery. Branagh, every inch an old-style, stiff-upper-lip Brit, starts as a caricature ("We have their testicles in our hands, and it feels good!") but later adds a touch of genuinely menacing ballast. Amid a colorful cast, young Sturridge is excellent as Carl."
Derek Elley VARIETY
"Richard Curtis recruits British comedy's great and good, then sets them adrift on the high seas in this comedy about the pirate radio boom of the 1960s. Touching, heartfelt and very, very English. The soundtrack is an absolute cracker."
Richard Luck CHANNEL 4 FILM
"It's a delight to be in the company of this crew, so much so that you'll be tempted to book a roundtrip."
Stella Papamichael DIGITAL SPY
"Sensational stuff from one of the best writers of his generation and a film which will appeal to every age."
Mickey McMonagle SUNDAY MAIL UK
"An early contender for not only of the best comedies of the year, but one of the best films of 2009, flag down "The Boat That Rocked" today!"
Clint Morris MOVIEHOLE
"Having lived in London when the pirate radio stations flourished in the 60s, I can easily relate to the subject matter, although the treatment is fanciful. But that's OK, we're talking about rock n'roll, sex and youth, and about having fun. Bill Nighy is a delight, his mannered performance just right for the role; Tom Sturridge is terrific as the youngster looking for his dad (in this highly likely place; it's the 60s after all); Rhys Ifans outstanding as Gavin, the superstar DJ returning from America to propel Radio Rock further into the nation's ears and hearts."
Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE

The Inside Story After the worldwide success of his directorial debut, "Love Actually", Richard Curtis began to consider ideas for his next film. As he imagined new stories, Curtis reflected on memories from his childhood of late nights listening to rogue rock and roll deejays who broadcast from ships and marine structures anchored just outside U.K. territorial waters in the late 1960s. These radio stations introduced enormous and enthusiastic audiences to landmark acts such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, as well as legendary solo artists including Jimi Hendrix, Dusty Springfield, Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin. The piracy was much to the chagrin of the government, which did its very best to suppress illegal transmissions coming from the waters to the homes of millions of Brits who loved everything they heard. Curtis’ passion for music from that era was evident throughout "Love Actually": from songs by Joni Mitchell and Darlene Love to tunes written by Paul Anka and, Lennon & McCartney. It seemed only fitting his next movie would fully embrace his love of music from the late ’60s. He would set his tale on a pirate radio ship and ensure his favourite songs made up the soundtrack. "Every person in my generation has the same memory," recalls 2005 Emmy award winner Curtis (TV'S The Girl in the Café). "You would go to bed at night and put your transistor radio underneath your pillow, switch it on and hear this fantastic music you could not hear elsewhere. And your parents would shout from downstairs, 'Go to bed! Turn off the light; go to sleep!' It was one of the things that made me love pop music most, that slight sense of it being illicit and illegal." Duly inspired by Robert Altman’s 1972 cult classic "M*A*S*H" and the John Landis 1978 landmark "Animal House", Curtis aimed to capture the essence of those comedies in his new project. "M*A*S*H", with its informality and loose structure, and "Animal House", with its maniacal and irreverent jokes, shared the male bonding and comedic situations Curtis guessed occurred on the offshore boats. "I started to write down a few scenes of things that could go wrong on a boat with a lot of guys on it. You immediately start to think: What is the relationship of the guys with girls? Do girls come over once a fortnight to have sex with the guys? What happens if someone wants a girlfriend? How do you get a girlfriend?" Screenplay in hand, Curtis took the project to longtime collaborators, Working Title’s two time BAFTA Film Award winners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner ("Elizabeth" & "Atonement"). "The music, the period, the story and everything about the project was of huge interest to us," recalls Fellner ("Nanny McPhee"). "Tim and I, and all of us at Working Title, have been very lucky to have an ongoing relationship with Richard going back about fifteen years. It’s always exciting making a film with him. He is a wonderfully charismatic, creative individual." Producer Hilary Bevan Jones, who had previously worked with Curtis on the BAFTA TV Award winning television drama "The Girl in the Café" and was a natural choice to join the team of "The Boat That Rocked". "I read the script and fell in love with it immediately," the 2006 Emmy Award winner ("The Girl in the Café") recalls. "There were lots of ingredients that made it irresistible. It was funny, touching, and the music was fantastic. Richard’s films have such a huge heart. You can’t but feel warmth when you watch his work." With the film greenlit, Working Title would now search for a cast and crew to restore the world of 1960s rock and roll to its glory days. They would look to a stable of longtime company players and a recent Oscar® winner to join the production.

"The drug takers and lawbreakers and bottom-bashing fornicators of our once great country. Well, here’s your little task, Twatt. I want Rock off the air in 12 months, and I want you to be my private assassin." Minister Dormandy. With dual duties as writer and director, Richard Curtis M.B.E. (who wrote twenty four episodes of "The Vicar of Dibley" between 1994 and 2007) would find taking "The Boat That Rocked" from page to screen quite a challenge. While he had the luxury of continuously editing his script to make flush with his actors’ skills, he admits it was as intricate for the director as it was for the writer. "The casting process is where you discover what you have written and what kind of film you are going to make. When casting, I look for a particular texture, an informality and willingness of an actor to stretch something to its comic limits: without it becoming unreal. For instance, in a search for the person to play Carl, we saw sixty people." Tom Sturridge ("Being Julia"), who plays young Carl, found his experience filming the comedy similar to his character’s journey aboard Radio Rock. "When Carl arrives on the boat, he is in awe of the deejays. I arrived on set to work with people like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and Nick Frost, and I felt the same awe, excitement, fear and pleasure from being in their company as Carl does in the company of their characters." When casting The Count, a brash deejay whose enormous knowledge of rock is only dwarfed by his smugness, the production team was looking for an American. "The most famous disc jockey of this era was an American guy called Emperor Rosko," says Writers Guild of America and, Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards winner Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral"). "So it was an exciting treat that we cast an American for the part. We were more than lucky to get the best actor in the world to play The Count." 2006 Oscar ® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote") was impressed by how committed Curtis was at allowing The Count to embody the era’s spirit of rebellion. Hoffman saw The Count as "a man who allowed millions of Brits to hear the same songs that spoke to him. He is this conduit of music for people to listen to and he believes that rock and roll is the medicine." "Philip is arguably the greatest actor currently working on the planet," says BAFTA Film and BAFTA TV Award winner Bill Nighy ("Love Actually" & TV'S "State of Play"). "He was adorable to work with and made us all feel comfortable. He is one of those actors who flicks a switch and metamorphosises into his character." Nighy, who had previously worked with Curtis on "Love Actually" and "The Girl in the Café", was cast as Quentin, the laissez-faire captain of the pirate ship Radio Rock. Nighy agreed to take the role before he read the script. Curtis admits that when he wrote the script, he had hoped Nighy would be available to play Quentin. To play the part of Gavin, the deejay who returns to Radio Rock to reclaim his rightful throne as the top jock of the European airways, the Working Title team cast another favorite player, 2005 BAFTA TV Award winner Rhys Ifans ("Not Only But Always"). Ifans had worked with the filmmakers when he played Spike, Hugh Grant’s character’s scene-stealing flatmate, in Notting Hill. "We needed somebody to play Gavin, who would rival whoever was playing The Count," says Bevan Jones. "Rhys was perfect for the role. His magnetism comes out in spades." Ifan notes: "It was brave of Richard to cast me in such a completely different role to Spike. He really handed me something very special. Richard’s loving character shines through in this film." Next on the list was the charismatic deejay Dave.

Nick Frost, best known for his comic turns in director Edgar Wright’s buddy-cop thriller "Hot Fuzz" and zombie comedy "Shaun of the Dead" was cast as Dave who stated, "When you get a phone call saying Richard Curtis wants to offer you a part in his new film, you would be mad to turn it down. I don’t think there is anyone around today that can do what he does. He makes films that are great yarns about friendship: without a hint of cynicism." For the additional deejays who kept Radio Rock blasting 24/7, a talented group of actors was cast. Chris O’Dowd, best known for his role in Channel 4’s comedy "The IT Crowd", took the role of Simon, the unbelievably nice (and naïve) breakfast deejay. Character actor Ralph Brown, known for such diverse roles as Danny the drug dealer in "Withnail & I" and ill-fated inmate Aaron in "Alien3", was cast as Wee Small Hours Bob, 'The Dawn Treader'. New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby, known for his part as the bank manager in the Jim Carrey comedy hit "Yes Man" and the TV series "Flight of the Conchords", was cast as Angus 'The Nut' Nutsford. Tom Wisdom of "300" fame was selected to play the man who can seduce anyone with barely a word, "Midnight Mark", while 2004 2004 Perrier Comedy Award winner Will Adamsdale was brought on to play John, the 'on the hour newsreader'. Katherine Parkinson, played receptionist Pauline Lamb in the ABC TV1 hit series "Doc Martin", was cast as the boat’s lovelorn lesbian cook, Felicity. Rounding out key crew and guests aboard Radio Rock are Tom Brooke ("Venus") and Ike Hamilton (TV'S "Dream Team") respectively, play the aptly named Thick Kevin and shy but soulful sound engineer Harold. American actress January Jones ("The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"), was tasked to play the love of Simon’s life, Elenore. Talulah Riley ("Pride & Prejudice")came on as Quentin’s coquettish niece (and the object of Carl’s affection), Marianne. Curtis’ story not only introduces audiences to the colourful characters of Radio Rock, but also the government zealots who were out to shut them down. Quentin’s landside counterpart is Sir Alexander Dormandy, the zelous cabinet official whose objective in life is to destroy pirate radio stations and ban them from polluting the airwaves. Emmy, European Film, Guild of German Art House Cinema, ALFS, Broadcasting Press Guild and BAFTA Film Awards are just a few of the many rewards actor Kenneth Branagh so far in a glorious career. But a pompous government arse? Yes it's true. Branagh was cast as Sir Alexander Dormandy. "The forces of darkness feature strongly in the story, and there is a lot of subtle, nonintrusive social observation about a crucial moment of change in our society during that period. Richard has a way of looking at it comically and entertainingly through the impact of pirate radio. He has caught the spirit of a really delicious comic anarchy in this picture and, to me, that simply jumped off the page,"says the four time Oscar ® nominee (1990, '93 & '97). Of course a government prat like Dormandy must have a 'sidekick' and a hapless secretary. 2006 Teen Choice Award winner Jack Davenport, best known for his role as Norrington in another maritime adventure, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, was cast as Dormandy’s well-meaning sidekick, Twatt. Sinead Matthews ("Pride & Prejudice" & "Happy Go Lucky") was cast as Dormandy’s long-suffering secretary, Miss Clitt. Principal photography began on March 3rd 2008. Filming took fourteen weeks. Five of those weeks took place in Portland Harbour, Dorset, shooting on a boat called the "Timor Challenger", which bears a strong resemblance to Radio Caroline boat, "Ross Revenge". Synopsis

It's 1966 and pop music has been limited to two hours of airplay each week. 18 year old Carl has recently been expelled from school. His mother Charlotte believes it's time for him to find some direction in life. She thinks that by spending time with his godfather Quentin (who runs Radio Rock, a pirate radio station outside British waters in the North Sea), he might settle down. Carl, who has never learnt the identity of his father, is thrown among the oddball deejays, led by The Count, who broadcast daily to some 25 million listeners in Britain, starved of pop and rock in a country that's probably British pop music's golden era. But Carl is more interested in losing his virginity with either party girl Desiree or Quentin's sexy niece Marianne . As Carl and the music loving disc jockeys get their kicks and live a life of rock n' roll, the Government decides to shut down what they see as a moral attack on English society. Pompous government minister Dormandy decides he'll make it his personal mission to shut down Radio Rock.

The Verdict

"It's all-aboard "The Boat That Rocked" for a journey back in time to when Rock 'n' Roll was considered evil and in the UK, pirate radio ships fed a music starved population with music the government restricted on its own the airwaves. Life at sea has never sounded better, looked better or was quite as funny as it is aboard "The Boat That Rocked". What a cast! hell, these actors could walk into any radio station and instantly become successful DJ'S. And the music. Well, this is a soundtrack to die for. The line-up features music from the cream of this defining era in which baby boomers like myself grew up in. And don't for a moment think think those scenes of the young British population going to bed with their transistors, listening to them at work or taking them into the dunny didn't happen here in Australia: because they did. It was a fab era in which I like many others, was even fortunate enough to join the screaming throng when the real 'Fab Four', The Beatles, came to town. Now, if you're a 'Baby Boomer' or a fan of rock 'n' roll you'll find this latest effort from the films director and writer Richard Curtis ("Mr. Bean's Holiday") a highly rewarding experience. Young adults and generational music lovers whose parents grew up in this era, will quickly realize that we were just as hip, just as cool and, just as switched on as the kids of today. Some may find it a 'tad' long but what the heck, just soak it all up. Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, a scene stealing Rhys Ifans and another great performance by NZ's Rhys Darby anchor the film. Oh, and did I mention the SEX? Yes kids, just as they do in "The Boat That Rocked", Grandma & Grandpa, consumed by lust, happily abandonded themselves to a new found experience: at every opportunity. Don't miss it. It rocks! It rolls! It's raunchy! More importantly, it entertains wonderfully. Wicked! "The Boat That Rocked" sets sail at regular intervals in a multiplex near you. 4 STARS." Who Plays Who?

Bill Nighy
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Rhys Ifans
Nick Frost
Rhys Darby
Tom Sturridge
Chris O'Dowd
Tom Wisdom
Ralph Brown
Tom Brooke
Katherine Parkinson
Olegar Fedoro
Kenneth Branagh
Stephen Moore
Jack Davenport
January Jones
Gemma Arterton
Talulah Riley
Amanda Fairbank-Hynes
Sinead Matthews
Kirsty Mather
Will Adamsdale
Francesca Longrigg
Laurence Richardson
Olivia Llewellyn
Ike Hamilton
Catherine Ashton

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Quentin
The Count
Gavin
Dave
Angus
Carl
Simon
Mark
Bob
Thick Kevin
Felicity
Rock Boat Captain
Minister Dormandy
Prime Minister
Twatt
Eleonore
Desiree
Marianne
Jemima Dormandy
Miss Clitt
Hettie
John
Mrs Dormandy
Nathan
Margarett
Harold
Mark's Girl

The Production Team

Director
Written by
Producers

Cinematography
Film Editor
Casting
Production Designer
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Costume Designer

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Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Hilary Bevan Jones/Tim Bevan
Richard Curtis/Eric Fellner
Danny Cohen
Emma E Hickox
Fiona Weir
Mark Tildesley
Thomas Brown
Dominic Capon
Joanna Johnston