It was it 1960s, and pirate radio stations on boats captured the interest of rock and roll fans.

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2010)

"Pirate" radio stations has a long and interesting history. It seems that as long as there has been regulation there have been broadcasts operating outside the law and these are generally referred to as pirate radio broadcasts. Sometimes they are operating legally where they broadcast, but reception can be illegal in the country they are heard.
This very funny and entertaining movie is about a particular pirate radio boat in the North Sea in the mid-1960s. Seems England has limited normal radio stations to a very small time of broadcasting rock and roll music, relatively new to them. So the pirate radio station gets a crew of 6 or 8 DJs, plus a few other staff, and via 3-hour shifts broadcast 24 hours a day. This pits them against the English politicians who are desperately seeking a way to shut them down, trying to find a loophole since the broadcasts are not illegal.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is arguably the star of the movie as The Count, one of the DJs. But Bill Nighy is also very good as Quentin who seems to be the station manager and tries to keep some semblance of order on the ship. The thread of a story alone would make a rather brief movie, so much of the running time is loaded with pretty much stand-alone episodes of the silly things the group would do to pass time on the ship.
MAJOR SPOILERS: In the end they were victims of their own ship. There was an explosion at night in the engine compartment and the ship began to sink. As it began to look grim for all of them, and morning broke, they looked out and saw dozens of small and medium sized boats, filled with fans, coming to their rescue after hearing coordinates broadcast when they first got into trouble. Saved by the fans!