Branagh aboard pirate radio film

Branagh and Ifans play DJs in The Boat That Rocked

British actors Kenneth Branagh and Rhys Ifans have joined the cast of Richard Curtis's film about pirate radio DJs broadcasting illegally in the 1970s.

Written and directed by Curtis, The Boat That Rocked also stars January Jones who visits the ship and falls for Ifans's character.

Filming on the Working Title production begins in London on 3 March.

Jones, currently to be seen in US drama Mad Men, had a small role in Curtis's 2003 directorial debut Love, Actually.

Ifans, meanwhile, played Hugh Grant's scruffy flatmate Spike in 1999's Notting Hill, which Curtis wrote.

Branagh will be seen later this year in Nazi war drama Valkyrie, in a cast that also includes Bill Nighy of Love, Actually and Pirates of the Caribbean fame.