| Movie DescriptionCarl (Tom Sturridge) arrives on the pirate radio ship, Radio Rock, after being sent to stay with the ship's Captain, his godfather, Quentin (Bill Nighy), to hopefully set his life on a different track after being expelled from school. Here he meets Radio Rock's crew of ramshackle disc jockeys, led by The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a buoyant rock-loving American, along with the suave and bawdy Dr. Dave (Nick Frost) and the naive but good-hearted "Simple" Simon Swafford (Chris O'Dowd). Also filling the airwaves is self-proclaimed New Zealand "nut" Angus (Rhys Darby), the mysterious Midnight Mark (Tom Wisdom) and the even more mysterious, reclusive and disillusioned late-night DJ Smooth Bob (Ralph Brown). Serving as the ship's crew are the shy lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson), radio assistant Harold (Ike Hamilton) and Carl's bunkmate, the appropriately nicknamed Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke).
Dr. Dave wastes no time in introducing "Young Carl" to women, only for both of Carl's attempts to be foiled by Dave himself, including Carl's first crush, Quentin's niece, Marianne (Talulah Riley). Simon also is unlucky in love, marrying the too-good-to-be-true Elenore (January Jones), only to find her affections are really placed with the returning "King of the Airwaves," Gavin Kavanagh (Rhys Ifans). The Count objects to Gavin's antics with Elenore, leading to a clash of egos that ends in a truce, after both suffer physical injuries, jumping from the top of the ship's radio mast in a contest of courage.
Thick Kevin, in an unusually insightful moment, points out to Young Carl that Radio Rock is clearly no place to be sent to clean up his act. He suggests that the real reason Carl's mother sent him there is that his father, whom he has never met, is among the crew, nominating Quentin as the most likely suspect. When his mother Charlotte (Emma Thompson) visits for Christmas, Carl asks about Quentin but she denies it. As she leaves the boat, Carl passes on a cryptic message from Smooth Bob ("Muddy Waters rocks"), which leads to the unexpected revelation that Bob actually is Carl's father, something that throws both father and son.
Radio Rock's controversial on-air antics have ruffled the feathers of a government minister, Dormandy, (Kenneth Branagh), who instructs his subordinate, Twatt (Jack Davenport) to find a way to take down pirate radio, despite its popularity among the pop hungry masses. After a couple of attempts to deprive the station of advertising funding backfire, Twatt encounters a news story of a fishing boat whose call for help failed to get through because of Radio Rock's powerful signal swamping the frequency and realises that this can be used to ban pirate radio for good. He proposes the creation of the Marine Offences Act, which passes through Parliament without any shown opposition. |
