Space Pirates (series)

Infobox British television
show_name = Space Pirates


caption = Space Pirates promotional poster
format = Children's comedy
director = Bridget Caldwell
runtime = 28 mins
creator =
starring = Luke Toulson
Kirsty Rider
Connor Panayi
Adam Carter
Dominic Byrne
channel = CBeebies
first_aired = 3 November 2007
last_aired = 22 March 2008
num_series = 1
num_episodes = 30
producer = Tony Reed
website = http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/spacepirates/
imdb_id = 1139240

"Space Pirates" is a British children's television series originally shown on CBeebies. There are 30 episodes which were first shown from November 3 2007 until March 22 2008.

"Space Pirates" is a mixture of live action and animation, set aboard a space ship which orbits Earth. It stars Luke Toulson as Captain DJ, and features the voice of Radio 1 newsreader Dominic Byrne as an alien news/weather/travel reporter called Zorst.

Background

Space Pirates is primarily aimed at children aged from four to six years old, although the show is designed to reach all ages and "bring the whole family together to explore a diverse range of musical performances." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/about/programmes/spacepirates_03.shtml "Space Pirates - Information for grown-ups"] ] According to the BBC, for six weeks from 9 November 2007, viewers could press the red button on their TV remote controls and choose which of the three songs they wanted to listen to at the end of the show. The show has also featured on the CBeebies slot on BBC Radio 7. In 2008, the episode "Music to Paint to" was nominated for a Banff World Television Award. [ [http://www.banff2008.com/rockies.library.php?CategoryID=nominee&p=2 Banff World Television Awards Program Catalogue] - retrieved 20 July 2008]

Storyline

The space ship "Guisto" is led by Captain DJ, who is very vain and stupid, and it orbits planet Earth searching for music for the radio show, "Guisto Radio". The tenuous storyline in each episode usually involves two space-wise kids, Honk and Tonk, who are played by children. They trick Captain DJ and/or Lippy by selling him something worthless for lots of doubloons or junk food. Lippy is a cheeky microphone who often makes fun of Captain DJ. Also featured is a newsreader/weather forecaster/traffic reporter, Zorst, who is an alien barnacle who clings to the prow of the ship like a figurehead. He always ends his reports with bad jokes. There are three musical acts per episode, one performed live on set (or specially recorded), one pop-video, and one cover song by puppet rats called the "The Jingles" - Windy, Stringy and Brassy. A group of children on Earth, the "Pirate Posse", get to vote on which song was the best and who they want to hear again, which plays out the show.

Music

The theme tune to the series, written by Darren Loveday and former Busted keyboardist Chris Banks, was released as a single available for download on iTunes, Chris Moyles popularised the song by playing it on his radio show, hoping to get it into the UK charts and beat "The X Factor" Christmas single ("When You Believe" by Leon Jackson). The result of Moyles' campaign was that the song completely failed to have any impact on the UK singles chart, [ [http://acharts.us/uk_singles_top_75/2007/52 UK singles chart Top 75 - 23 December 2007] ] although the song did spend eleven weeks at position number one on the iTunes Childrens' Chart. [ [http://www.chrisbanks.co.uk/about.html chrisbanks.co.uk] - retrieved 30 July 2008] Moyles later played a mashup of the song that mixed it with the theme tune from Ghostbusters, the irony being that the mashup was actually created by Chris Banks himself.

Some acts that have been featured so far are Polyphonic Spree, McFly, and the London Community Gospel Choir.

Cast

*Captain DJ: Luke Toulson
*Lippy: Adam Carter
*Honk: Kirsty Rider
*Tonk: Connor Panayi
*The Jingles:
**Stringy: Dave Chapman
**Brassy: Sarah Burgess
**Windy: Brian Herring
*Zorst: Dominic 'Slaphead' Byrne
*Jolly Rogers: Stephen Cannon

*Assistant Puppeteers: William Banyard, Yvonne Stone, Warrick Brownlow-Pike

Episodes

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/spacepirates/ Official Space Pirates website on CBeebies] .