William Ilkley Movies

In mid- to late-'60s Britain, an unusual yet colorful subculture sprang up and thrived as a product of the upswing in British pop music, only to meet its doom within a few short years. Though the BBC functioned as the country's main source of news and music, its programmers offered very little airtime to rock & roll -- which left an overwhelming need unfulfilled. In response, small bands of "pirate" radio enthusiasts set up broadcasting towers on boats just outside of English boundary waters, and transmitted signals to an estimated 25 million listeners, 24 hours a day and seven days per week. Unsurprisingly, the DJs who took charge of these broadcasts could rival just about anyone in terms of flamboyance and outsized personalities. With Pirate Radio (released as The Boat That Rocked in the U.K.), writer-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) travels back to the Swinging Sixties and takes a headfirst plunge into this colorful realm.

The story opens in 1966, aboard a rusty fishing trawler christened Radio Rock and equipped with pirate broadcasting equipment. Here, the slightly daft elitist Quentin (Bill Nighy) presides over a motley crew of joint-toking, sex-hungry disc jockeys including Dave (Nick Frost), a heavyset boob who nevertheless considers himself a hot property with women and loves to chase skirts; "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who aspires to be the first person to drop an F-bomb over the British airwaves; the gloom-laden Irishman Simon (Chris O'Dowd); bonked-out hipster Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); womanizer Mark (Tom Wisdom); Angus (Rhys Darby), a New Zealander whom nobody likes; and the only female member of the group, lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). These misfits pull off quite a show -- enough of one that they attain the status of national idols for the youth culture -- but the super-conservative government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) detests the whole business and will do almost anything in his power to shut them down. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel Haakon Haakonsen, Shipwrecked is a family film about a cabin boy (Stian Smestad) whose ship is hit by a hurricane just before it is about to be ambushed by pirates. The boy and his stowaway friend wash up on a South Seas island which happens to be where the pirates' treasure is buried. Soon, the pirates--led by Lieutenant Merrick (Gabriel Byrne)--arrive at the island with hopes of reclaiming their treasure, and the boy decides to construct a series of elaborate booby traps to prevent them from reaching the booty. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Kate O'Mara guest-stars as the Rani, an exiled Time Lady. Encamped in 19th century England, the Rani -- now the dictator of the planet Miasimia Gora -- is draining the brains of the men behind the Industrial Revolution. The Doctor (Colin Baker) must not only stop the Rani, but also a more familiar and even deadlier adversary. Written by Pip and Jane Baker, and largely filmed at Blists Hill, an open-air museum in Britain's Ironbridge Gorge, "The Mark of the Rani" was originally shown in two parts, the first of which aired on February 2, 1985; for American television, the two 45-minute episodes were subdivided into four 22-minute chapters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide