The Boat that Rocked Homework.

To what extent is the film based on real events?
There where real Pirate Radios on ships.
There was not a real ship called "Radio Rock" - I feel they made up this name because it goes with the title - "The Boat that Rocked" which has the double meaning of rocking in the musical, 'cool' terms and rocking, as a boat does in the sea.
The Government at the time was labour, not conservative - They most likely made this up so as to make it much easier for them to get the audience to react negatively towards the "evil" character. They made him very stereotyped so him being conservative came naturally.
The boat that rocked station is most likely based on the legendary Radio Caroline. A real, and most successful pirate radio station which is still on air today.
The fact that it is still on air suggests that the boat did not sink. I feel that the sinking boat was added so that the characters could each go their own ways, onto the different boats without making that decision themselves. It means that the audience gets an insight into the futures of the characters simultaneously and without a feeling of them leaving the "rocking" lifestyle.
The 45 minutes a day on BBC I am not sure is true or false. But there was a foreign radio station that was very popular, Radio Luxembourg. The founder of Radio Caroline, who helpped the Rolling Stones, wanted to get them aired. But Radio Luxembourg was filled with major record label music. So the founder of Radio Caroline (Ronan O'Rahilly) wanted to found a radio station whereby indipendant and smaller groups could gain air time.
The class of the people onboard the ship is accurate however. Ronan O'Rahilly was a well off man and lived in relative luxury. This was kept accurate due to the easyness on the eye and brain for the ship to be relatively well looked after and luxurious. This keeps the audience's attention on the goings on of the characters rather than their living conditions. This goes along with the positive, upbeat and 'feel-good' nature of the plot. It also helps create nice, cosy mis-en-scenes.
It is also true that there was American influenced radio stations. This was kept the same since it helps the verisimilitude as well as satisfying American audiences.
Again it is true that there was a massive audience listening to these pirate radios, over a third of the British population.
The Broadcasting Offences act was true and it did become law at a midnight. This allowed for the rather symbolic ending of broadcasting


Things that where kept out:
Major Oliver Smedley hijacked Calvert's fort. In a fit of fury Calvert, who was known to be a violent and irrational person, burst into Smedley's home and hurled a heavy stone ornament at him. He also claimed to be armed with a tear gas pistol. Smedley took up his shot gun and killed Calvert. The image of the offshore stations as jolly buccaneers using spare radio channels to provide popular free entertainment was irrevocably shattered. Now the government could portray them as battling, murdering gangsters.
This was kept out because it was far too brutal and down to earth for this film. Also as it says in this extract the fun loving, jolly buccaneer attitude of the DJ's would have been ruined.

Source:
http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#history_part_1.html