SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

Family-friendly pirate films

Aardman’s The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! (4.30pm, 8pm, Sky Premiere) makes fine

family viewing – and it’s not the only seafaring yarn you can watch with the children… Buccaneer Bunny (1948)

Yosemite Sam is Sea-Goin’ Sam – ‘the bloodthirstiest, shoot-’emfirstiest, doggone worstiest pirate that ever sailed the Spanish main’ – but Bugs Bunny and pals are not impressed.

Treasure Island (1950)

Disney’s first live-action version of Stevenson’s novel features Robert Newton as Long John Silver (above) – the actor credited with inventing the pirate caricature as we know it. Aarrgh!

Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968)

Peter Ustinov (above) is the drunken pirate, trapped in 20thcentury limbo till he performs one good deed, in this Disney fantasy – a not-so-jolly Roger, it would appear…

The Goonies (1985)

Steven Spielberg and Chris (Harry Potter) Columbus cooked up this fantasy yarn about a bunch of kids searching for pirate treasure. But where exactly did OneEyed Willie hide it?

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Jim Henson’s son Brian directed this fuzzyfelt feature, also based on the 19thcentury story. Tim Curry is Silver, while a very young Kevin (Star Stories) Bishop (above) is ‘Jim lad’.