Rhys ‘handsome’ for pirate-romp premiere The Boat That Rocked

STARS including Rhys Ifans, Gemma Arterton, Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy turned out last night for the world premiere of The Boat That Rocked.

A red carpet wound through the middle of London’s Leicester Square as women dressed in skimpy ’60s outfits danced on a plinth with vinyl record discs in the background.

The movie, from the director of Love Actually, Richard Curtis, is about young people, the 1960s and pop music.

It centres on a band of DJs who captivate Britain by playing music that defines a generation as pirate radio plays rock and pop from the high seas 24 hours a day.

Those behind the film said that more than half the population of Britain listened to the pirates every single day.

Ifans, wearing rock star dark glasses and a snakeskin-style jacket, ambled up and down the red carpet.

Curtis said that Notting Hill star Ifans was handsome in this film.

He said: “He’s improving with age.”

Arterton, meanwhile, described the film as “fun, fun, fun all the time. It was brilliant”.

Branagh said: “There was a lot of fun from being the guy who is trying to shut them down.”

Nighy said: “I did enjoy making the film and I’m not just saying that.

“We floated on a boat off the coast of Dorset with a bunch of very cool guys, we played lots of music, you could have a toasted cheese sandwich any time you wanted.”

Nighy said he had never been a classical English actor, adding that Shakespeare posed a problem “because you can’t operate in those kind of trousers”.