The story of how pirate radio got London swinging has inspired a comedy with a crew of famous faces, including one of our own, reports HELEN BARLOW
It might be the story of sticking it up the British establishment. But The Boat That Rocked has some New Zealand connections. Yes, the story about a seafaring pirate radio station would seem to have parallels to the start of Radio Hauraki (see sidebar). It's also got a sometime member
of the New Zealand diplomatic corps in its cast and its creator was born in Wellington.
Richard Curtis, who has forged a career writing quintessentially English screen comedy - from Blackadder to Notting Hill - before turning to directing as well with Love Actually, was born in New Zealand.
But he left as a child before Hauraki's Tiri put to sea. Growing up in England, he became a pop music obsessive. And so, picking up the story of Radio Caroline and its nautical efforts to introduce private rock 'n' roll radio to a 1960s Britain where the BBC ruled the airwaves by law, a movie was born. So, too, was Rhys Darby's second big movie role after his scene-stealing turn in Jim Carrey's Yes Man and his breakthrough as Murray in Flight of The Conchords.
"I'm the antipodean representative in the film," announces Darby, who speaks with his own Kiwi accent as Angus "The Nut" Nutsford, deemed one of the most obnoxious men in Britain. "I was instantly Mr Popular on board. 'Guys, you're going to be annoyed by me' I told them, and started poking fun at them and being generally annoying."
Apparently he's very good at it. Darby immersed himself in 60s music and got a groovy wardrobe to match.
"The cast was full of comics trying to outdo each other," he says.
"Richard was a kind of headmaster. It's the most wonderful film I've ever made - I've only made two films in total, but it was absolutely awesome, and I was quite emotional when it came to an end."
Darby's cast-mates in the ensemble included Bill Nighy - who has played a pirate before, in a certain hit trilogy - as the station manager, Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as the sharp-witted Dave, Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as the brash American Count, the god of the airwaves, and Rhys Ifans as his arch-competitor, Gavin. The actors rehearsed together for six weeks before filming began and spent their first five days together sleeping on the boat.
"They dubbed it 'boat camp'," says Frost.
"We all ate together at night and one time Richard screened M*A*S*H, his inspiration for the film. There was a recreation room with darts and foosball, so we just hung out and got drunk and then we went to sleep in these weird little coffin-esque bunks. To be honest, the interior of the ship was a bit of a shithole."
Of course they didn't need any rocking.
"We were all good drinkers," chuckles Frost. "I had my moments during the yard of wine contests we had most nights. It was an old hospital ship where the operating room was turned into a studio with all the old equipment. So we'd have a few drinks, someone would go down to play some songs and invariably four or five of us would take turns until two in the morning, and we'd all stand around going through the singles. It was a bit of a cheat really.
When you see us on screen having a laugh and playing records, there's no acting required."
Nighy says that the line between the film and real life became blurred.
"There were times when you suddenly realised the camera had been on and there times when the camera should have been on and it wasn't. It was a very relaxed atmosphere."
Frost possibly faced the greatest challenge though, as he had to get all his gear off and run around starkers. "I don't want to do it often because I don't want to be typecast as a stud," he says of the scene where he admits to combing his own chest hair.
"Actually, the nude scene wasn't difficult because I used to play a lot of rugby, so getting my kit off in front of 30 men is not an issue."
The love scene was another matter. "Gemma Arterton, she was my first, so obviously I wanted to be a gentleman and made sure there were mints all around to have between takes."
LOWDOWN
What: The Boat that Rocked
When and where: At cinemas from today