Space Pirates (2007 TV Series)

Space Pirates is a British children's television series originally shown on CBeebies. It is a mixture of live action and animation, set aboard a space ship which orbits Earth. It starred Luke Toulson as Captain DJ, and featured the voice of (then) Radio 1 newsreader Dominic Byrne as an alien news/weather/travel reporter called Zorst. There are 30 episodes which were first shown from November 3, 2007 until March 28, 2008 and a Christmas Special aired on December 24, 2008. A Cartoonito UK remake of the said show premiered on September 5, 2011.

Background
Space Pirates was commissioned for the BBC's CBeebies channel. The show 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." 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. The show was also nominated for Best Pre-School Live Action Series at the 2008 BAFTA Children's Awards.

Storyline
The space ship Guisto is led by Captain DJ, who is very vain and stupid. 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. Captain DJ's real name is occasionally revealed (it is "Leslie"). Also featured is a newsreader/weather forecaster/traffic reporter, Zorst, who is an alien barnacle who clings to the stern of the ship (near the exhaust, hence his name). 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 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, although the song did spend eleven weeks at position number one on the iTunes Children's Chart. 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.

Acts which appear on the show include: McFly, The Cheeky Girls, Jamelia, The Drifters, The Puppini Sisters, Julie Felix, the London Community Gospel Choir, and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Cast

 * Captain DJ (aka 'Leslie'): Luke Toulson
 * Lippy: Adam Carter
 * Honk: Kirsty Rider
 * Tonk: Connor Panayi
 * The Jingles:
 * Stringy: Brian Herring
 * Brassy: Sarah Burgess
 * Windy: Dave Chapman
 * Zorst: Dominic Byrne
 * Jolly Rogers: Stephen Cannon
 * Assistant Puppeteers: William Banyard, Yvonne Stone, Warrick Brownlow-Pike

The puppets in the show, including Lippy and the three Jingles, were designed and created by Yvonne Stone and Sacha Choat.