:The Mersey Pirate

{{Short description|1979 British children's TV series}}

{{More citations needed|date=May 2025}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}

{{Infobox television

| image =

| genre = Children's

| presenter = Duggie Brown
Frank Carson
Bernard Wrigley
Billy Butler

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| num_series =

| num_episodes =

| company = Granada Television

| network = ITV

| first_aired = {{start date|1979|6|2|df=y}}

| last_aired = {{end date|1979|8|4|df=y}}

}}

The Mersey Pirate is a British children's television programme that was shown in 1979.{{Cite web |last=Macdonald |first=Neil |date=2016-09-03 |title=When Scully, Mooey and Billy Butler ruled the airwaves |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/remembering-mersey-pirate-ahead-liverpool-11828699 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Liverpool Echo |language=en}} Based aboard a Mersey ferry, the {{MV|Royal Iris||2}}, anchored at Liverpool Docks in the River Mersey, it was produced by Granada Television and was introduced to fill the Saturday morning summer break taken by Tiswas.

The programme's presenter was Duggie Brown{{Cite journal |last=Frisby |first=Norman |date=September 1979 |title=The Mersey Pirate |url=http://marconiintelevision.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/85067896/The%20Mersey%20Pirate.pdf |journal=Communication and Broadcasting}} and guests included Frank Carson, Bernard Wrigley and Billy Butler. Actors Andrew Schofield and Ray Kingsley, who would later work together on the television series Scully, played stowaways.{{Cite book |last=Worthington |first=Tim |title=The Golden Age of Children's TV |publisher=Black & White Publishing |year=2024 |isbn=9781785306396}} Various guests appeared on the series including The Dooleys, Bad Manners, The Undertones, and Star Wars star David Prowse{{cite book | last=Prowse | first=David | title=Straight From The Force's Mouth | publisher=Andrews UK Limited | publication-place=Luton | date=2011-09-28 | isbn=978-1-908382-05-4 | page=31}} (who was equally known in the UK for his persona as The Green Cross Code Man at the time).

Most ITV regions showed the programme, though several (including Tyne Tees, UTV and Channel Television) did not. The show had been due to run throughout the summer of 1979, but its run was cut short due to the ITV network strike that ran from August to October that year.

The following year another Granada production, Fun Factory, took the Summer Saturday morning slot.