FORMER radio DJ Tom Edwards is happily land-locked 40 years on from his days at sea working on the legendary station Radio Caroline.

He celebrated his birthday on Friday with friends and former colleagues, including BBC radio presenter Keith Skues, with a party at the Queen's Head in Kirkby-la-Thorpe.

Now Tom, who has lived in Heckington for 15 years, is looking forward to the release of a new film based on Radio Caroline and its DJs during the 1960s.

The Boat That Rocked, written and directed by Richard Curtis, tells that tale of the 'dark days of radio', when commercial radio stations were forced to broadcast from boats moored in international waters to defy a UK mainland ban.

To mark the launch of the film, Tom is due to join his former pirate radio colleagues for a reunion show over the Easter weekend, broadcasting from a former lightship called LV18, moored in Harwich Harbour.

Tom was one of the original presenters on Radio Caroline, spending days on end at sea in all weathers – despite the fact he never learned to swim.

"It just never crossed my mind," he said. "I was fearless in my younger days! I used to say the world was my oyster – and it still is," he said.

There were no commercial radio stations in the 1960s and pop music programmes on the BBC's Light Programme were strictly limited on a once or twice a week basis.

Pirate radio stations proved hugely popular, providing listeners with access to all the top tunes of the day, and at one stage commanded an audience of 25 million.

Tom started out on Radio City, on former anti-aircraft towers known as The Shivering Sands, off the north coast of Kent.

He moved to Radio Caroline following the death of Radio City's owner Reg Calvert in 1966 and subsequent closure of the station in 1967.

At Radio Caroline Tom worked alongside radio legends including Tommy Vance, Johnnie Walker and Tony Blackburn.

Tom came ashore for the final time in 1967, following changes to the Government's Marine Offences Bill which made it illegal to supply equipment, goods and services to pirate stations outside British waters or advertise on it, and he went on to join the newly-established BBC Radio 1 in 1968.

Forty years on, Tom and some of his former pirate radio colleagues are preparing to take the waves once more.

They will broadcast from LV18 – the home of Pirate BBC Essex – moored in Harwich Harbour, next month. The show will be broadcast to the world via webcams and a live Internet feed.

"We've done a couple of similar broadcasts in recent years," Tom said. "The last was in 2007.

"But, thank God, this time the ship will be moored in the harbour – I'm not as fearless as I once was!

"I can't wait to meet up with my former colleagues," he added. "We changed the sound of radio to what it is now."

Watch The Boat That Rocked trailer below