It's the 1960s and BBC radio plays just a couple of hours of rock and pop each day. A number of so called "pirate" radio stations operate from off-shore broadcasting into the mainland. They are very popular with huge swathes of the population - but the goverment doesn't like them, believing them to be immoral.

So as the government look into how to shut them down, we meet the motley crew of Radio Rock, who broadcast the latest and greatest hits, whilst having a good time. Once a month the crew are allowed female visitors to the boat, with the only female allowed permanently being their lesbian chef (Jen from the IT Crowd).

The film centers around life on board, the newest crewmember's quest to lose his virginity and the battle against "the man" who want to shut them down.

Some scenes in this film are gratuitous in terms of nudity and there is a fair amount of bad language. The strange thing is that for some reason although I can't directly relate to many of the characters and disagree with a lot of their morals, I did start to like them. This is in the same way as in Love Actually - especially towards the end when the story actually gets going.

This is a slow film, with very little happening for a long time. This is essential for character development, though. My favourite character is "Simple Simon" (Chris O'Dowd from the IT Crowd), because of all the people I can relate to him most. He has his own set of beliefs and is horribly betrayed during the film.

Anyway, in short, this is a modern comedy. There isn't much in the way of slapstick and most of the humour is subtle, often rude and based on characters not situations. I like it, but not enough to want to see it again and certainly not enough to buy.

see also:
Hot Fuzz, Anchorman, Big Nothing, Zombieland

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photo © Universal Pictures.