Image copyright Alamy

Ahoy there mateys! Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead star Nick Frost is going to play Captain Pugwash on the big screen.

The star will play the bumbling and cowardly pirate in the live action movie based on the classic 1950s children's books and 1970s TV series.

"Besides Winston Churchill and Henry VIII, Captain Horatio Pugwash seems like a role I was born to play," Frost said.

Production on the film will start next year.

The movie will see the portly buccaneer on a ship to Botany Bay, where he eventually finds himself at the helm of The Black Pig on a mission to rescue Tom the Cabin Boy's father, who is marooned on a volcanic island.

You can also expect a hoard of treasure and an army of angry ghosts - and of course Pugwash's arch-enemy, Cut-Throat Jake.

Simple sets

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Jason Flemyng will also star in the film, with more casting to be announced soon. We're secretly hoping Captain Jack Sparrow might make an appearance too.

Created by John Ryan, Captain Pugwash first appeared as a comic strip in The Eagle in 1950, before becoming a series of short black-and-white cartoons, which ran on the BBC from 1957-66.

They became famous for their simple sets, with cardboard puppet characters controlled by levers.

It was later revived in 1974 for a second generation of episodes produced in colour.

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