The Boat That Rocked
Short description
The Boat That Rocked is a comedy set in Britain in 1966, when the BBC offered only a couple of hours of pop music each week. Filling the gap is Radio Rock, a pirate station broadcasting around the clock from a ship in the North Sea, beyond the reach of the authorities. Its eclectic crew of DJs has built an audience of millions, but the government, represented by a determined minister, wants the station shut down. Into this world arrives Carl, a teenager sent by his mother to stay with his godfather Quentin, who runs the operation. On board he meets the station's star presenters, among them the exuberant American known as The Count.
Richard Curtis wrote and directed the film, his second turn behind the camera after Love Actually and before About Time. Tom Sturridge plays Carl, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, Bill Nighy as Quentin, Rhys Ifans as Gavin, Nick Frost as Dave and Emma Thompson as Charlotte. The production, a British, American, French and German co-production, cost about 35 million dollars and took roughly 36 million worldwide, a modest return.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from over two thousand votes, while the critics' score stands at 5.9 from 163 reviews, so audiences have responded more warmly than reviewers. It runs 135 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- There is a scene in the film where one of the characters plays a musical composition dated 1969, despite the fact that the film's action takes place in 1966.
- In the film "Radio Rock," the station broadcast on medium wave at 203 m, but the Russian translation repeatedly states the frequency 103.4 FM (the frequency of Moscow's Radio "Mayak," whose DJs voiced the main characters).
- A significant amount of equipment shown on the ship was borrowed from Radio Caroline (a pirate British radio station founded in 1964 to broadcast popular music and avoid paying royalties to record companies). The film depicts equipment manufactured in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but Radio Caroline didn't start using it until the 1980s.
- The ship Radio Caroline served as the prototype for the radio station "Radio Rock," and was equipped with a 10-kilowatt radio transmitter. The ship also sank.
- The song 'Let's Dance', featured in the film, was written in 1983, although the action takes place in the 1960s. The film also uses a cover version of the song 'Stay with Me' recorded in 2009, alongside the original version from 1966.
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