The August 1 In Living Memory programme on BBC Radio 4 was on Sealand,
the programme preview said:
“In 1966, a former pirate radio broadcaster, Major Paddy Roy Bates,
occupied a disused military platform in the North Sea, and moved his
family aboard. The next year he declared it to be the sovereign
Principality of Sealand, appointing himself Prince Roy, and his wife, a
former fashion model, as Princess Joan. Five decades on, the Bates
family still occupy the platform, having survived the repeated attempts
by the British government to evict them by legal means, and having
fought off attempts by rival groups to seize the platform by force. It’s
a story of coups, counter-coups, guns, petrol bombs, and rival groups of
foreign businessmen. Jolyon Jenkins interviews surviving witnesses to
tell the story of this real life “Passport to Pimlico”.
I found this a fascinating 30 minute documentary, it includes clips of
Roy Bates’s pirate radio station Radio Essex. All In Living Memory
programmes are archived on BBC Iplayer, the Sealand documentary can be
heard at http://bbc.in/OCcpX2