Good Morning England

In 1966, the BBC has the monopole of the radio transmission. However, dozens of pirate radios broadcast from boats settled in the North Sea.
Radio Rock is one of them. Whereas the BBC ignores the sixties pop-rock phenomenon, these radios are based on this music and broadcast it throughout the day. These radios are not illegal… for the moment! Indeed, the state and the Prime Minister want to stop them by law or by force.

Carl, a teenager, is send by his mother on board Radio Rock boat in order to “learn life” with his godfather, the owner of the radio. The pitch is thin but effective: it is a simple pretext for discovering the boat, the different eccentric DJs and particularly the omnipresent pop music. Like in Richard Curtis’ last production, Love Actually, the soundtrack of the film is gorgeous and immerses us directly into the sixties.

You doesn’t watch that movie for the story – which ends in a very improbable ‘‘Titanic’’ way – but for the rock spirit which is present in each shot: the very graphical set, the arrogant, ridiculous minister, and, last but not least, the sexual quest of the teenager. Love (and sex) is a main issue in Radio Rock, even if women are allowed on the boat only twice a month! The sex topic was taboo in the England of the sixties, and it is very striking to see how much it was in one of the sequences of the film, when The Comte, one of the Radio DJs, tries to say the F*** word during his broadcast. The French audience can here draw a parallel with the affair of the French “radios libres”, developed since the 80’s and based, like Radio Rock, on young music and language

Good Morning England, by Richard Curtis, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans and Kenneth Branagh. 2009.

The boat that rocked !

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