Film explores Europe’s ‘Pirate Radio’

From the creator of Love Actually, Pirate Radio stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Nick Frost as rogue deejays bucking the 1960s establishment. Good Morning, Vietnam was never this naughty. As The Beatles, The Kinks and the Rolling Stones are changing musical tastes and raising eyebrows in 1966, the British government decides to ban all music it deems vulgar from its national airwaves. Instead of signing off, the hell-raising deejays band together, charter a boat for the North Sea and broadcast an illegal rock-n-roll signal back to England. And they have a bloody good time while doing so, too, until Kenneth Branagh’s Sir Alistair Dormandy decides to hunt down the ship and try to pull the plug. One part MASH, one part Animal House, Pirate Radio summons the spirit of freedom and cheeky rebellion on the high seas. Emma Thompson, January Jones and Rhys Ifans co-star. Rated R.