The Mersey Pirate facts for kids

The Mersey Pirate was a fun British children's TV show from 1979. It was set on a real ferry boat called the Royal Iris. This ferry was anchored in the River Mersey at Liverpool Docks. The show was made by Granada Television. It helped fill the Saturday morning TV slot during the summer when another popular show, Tiswas, was taking a break.

All About The Mersey Pirate Show

The show was filmed before it was shown on TV. To make it look like it was live, they used fake newspaper headlines. This made it seem like things were happening right then.

Meet the Crew and Guests

The show had several friendly presenters. These included Duggie Brown, Frank Carson, Bernard Wrigley, and Billy Butler. Two actors, Andrew Schofield and Ray Kingsley, played characters who were secretly hiding on the boat. These two actors later worked together on another TV series called Scully.

Many special guests also appeared on The Mersey Pirate. Some of these guests were music groups like The Dooleys, Bad Manners, and The Undertones. Even a star from Star Wars, David Prowse, visited the show. He was also well-known in the UK as The Green Cross Code Man, who taught kids about road safety.

Why The Show Ended Early

Most TV areas in the UK showed The Mersey Pirate. However, a few places, like Tyne Tees, UTV, and Channel Television, did not. The show was planned to run for the whole summer of 1979. But its run was cut short. This happened because of a big problem called the ITV network dispute. This dispute stopped many TV channels from broadcasting from August to October that year.

The year after The Mersey Pirate, another show from Granada Television took over the Saturday morning summer slot. This new show was called Fun Factory.