Our Flag Means Death sets sail for second series

Although it’s still relatively recent, the first series premiering in 2022, David Jenkins’ historical sitcom Our Flag Means Death qualifies as a sleeper hit purely on the basis that, on its release, expectations of its success were low.

It certainly didn’t qualify for any real marketing budget, yet good old-fashioned word-of-mouth (bolstered by social media) saw viewership more than triple between its first episode and its season finale.

This purely organic growth in demand, driven by little more than online chatter, is rivalled perhaps only by Ted Lasso’s phenomenal success.

Vanity Fair broke the news of its second season being greenlit just last summer, dubbing the news “the Sigh of Relief Heard Round the Internet” such was the anticipation in both critical and viewing circles – and yet earlier this year Max, the US studio who produces Our Flag, announced its cancellation.

Flags may well have been flying at half-mast for this news, however some would argue that it’s better to go out on a strong season than to run and run.

Especially since one of its two main stars, Taika Waititi, has so many other irons in the fire – including the hit horror-mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (also on BBC) as well as an upcoming Time Bandits reboot starring Lisa Kudrow for Apple TV+.

For the uninitiated (season one is available in full in iPlayer), Our Flag Means Death tells the story of the real-life ‘Gentleman Pirate’ Stede Bonnet, played by Flight of the Conchords’ Rhys Darby, a member of the landed gentry who, during the Golden Age of piracy, left his life and family behind to pursue his dreams of buccaneering around the seven seas.

He soon attracts the attentions of rival pirate Ed ‘Blackbeard’ Teach (Waititi), and the two become unlikely allies – and thus begins a complicated and often sweet, surprisingly touching and oddly very believable romance.

Among the two pirate captains’ disparate crews are the seabird-obsessed Nathaniel Buttons, played by Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner, non-binary cutthroat Jim Jimenez (Vico Ortiz), who has a bounty on their head, and the surprisingly level-headed Frenchie (Joel Fry of Trollied).

Stede’s chief antagonist is Blackbeard’s first mate Izzy Hands, played by Happy Valley’s Con O’Neill, who purports to have his captain’s best interests at heart but who honestly believes Stede has no place among them.

As we rejoin the crew and get our sea-legs back, we find Stede and his shipmates living at the Republic of Pirates, working for Spanish Jackie in an attempt to save for a new ship – the Revenge being currently in the hands of Blackbeard and cutting a swathe through the merchant ships of the trade routes.

Blackbeard meanwhile is still smarting from his apparent snub by Stede, and is acting increasingly erratically putting himself, his crew and his command at risk.

And no one bears the brunt of Ed’s mania more heavily than his oldest friend and confidant, Izzy.