Pirates rock the boat in Portland

This retro comedy by Richard Curtis, writer/director of Notting Hill, is based on a fictional pirate radio station in 1966, and much of the action takes place at sea. LV 18 has actually functioned quite frequently as a real offshore station in recent (legal) re-enactments of pirate radio.Filming started in March in Portland and Weymouth. The principal ship ‘Radio Rock’ is played by the ex-fishing fleet hospital ship ‘Timor Challenger’, which had aerials fitted at Hythe to look the part. LV 18, which already had its own transmitter mast, plays the rival station Radio Sunshine. The GPS tug ‘Muria’ towed it from Harwich to Portland for Frigate Films, which provides marine services to Universal Pictures and Working Title Films.

LV18 is the last of the manned lightships to be kept intact. The 114′, 581 grt. vessel was built by Phillips of Dartmouth in 1958 for Trinity House. With a crew of nine, the ship served on some of the more exposed stations until 1993.

It is now owned by the Pharos Trust, which is restoring it at Harwich. Since 1999 it has been used for licensed offshore broadacasting as Radio North Sea International, Radio Caroline, Radio Mi Amigo and twice as Pirate BBC Essex in 2004 and 2007. On the latter of those occasions the station ran for a week on the 40th anniversay of the Marine Offences Act, which made pirate radio illegal. On that occasion several of the original pirate broadcasters transmitted around the clock, with Johnny Walker, Dave Cash, Emperor Roscoe and others familiar to those whose musical memories came from outside territorial waters.

At one point offshore radio was quite an industry, with as many as three ships moored within sight of the Essex coast competing for pop audiences. Much of the tendering to these vessels and others farther afield was done from Harwich until any contact with pirate broadcasters was criminalised.

The Timor Challenger (Radio Rock) was formerly the Hospital Church vessel ‘De Hoop’, built as a mother ship to Dutch fishing fleets. Later it also functioned as a radio ship broadcasting weather reports, messages and church services.

Filming in Portland with a high profile cast which includes Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh and Rhys Ifans has created a buzz locally. Much of the shooting has been aboard the Timor Challenger, which has been seen moving about the harbour by day and night. LV 18’s lantern has been called into play, lighting up the harbour and the steep hills of Portland.

By Graeme Ewens