I might be a bit late, but it is still International Talk Like A Pirate Day somewhere in the world (it's only 3pm in Toronto!) so here we go with the top five pirates on TV, me hearties! Now normally here on the good ship Jolly Scooper we like to do things by tens (especially lashes you scurvy mongrels so pay attention when I'm talking to ye!) but when I say "TV pirates," I'm not talkin' footage of the Pittsburgh Pirates, or dramatisations of the Pirates of Penzance. I don't mean those black-hearted Space Pirates (the ones from the 1969 Doctor Who story, or the Orions from the original Star Trek series) either so don't be takin' the mick or I'll keelhaul the lot of ye by Garrrrd!

So, to see the kind of TV pirate I'm a-meanin' walk the plank with me across the cut and I'll show you me buried treasure, Jim lad.

#5: Yoho Ahoy
British preschool television series about a group of pirate puppets, aboard the good ship The Rubber Duck. There's Captain Bilge, Cutlass the pirate, first mate Swab, Poop the cabin boy, Jones the engineer, ship's cook Grog, the deckhand Plank, the beautiful Booty, young lady Plunder, and the lookout known as Crow. In 2001 it won the Banff Television Festival Rockie Award for Best Animation.

#4: Peter Pan and the Pirates
Giving as much air time to the pirates as it did to Peter Pan, this show ran on Fox from September 1990 to December 1991. Besides Captain Hook and Mr. Smee (traditionally the only Jolly Roger crew to feature in other adaptations) the show starred several other pirates including Robert Mullins, Alf Mason, Gentleman Jim Starkey, Billy Jukes, and Cookson.

#3: The Pirates of Dark Water
Fantasy animated series from Hanna-Barbera which also ran in the early 1990s. The story followed a group of adventurers on a quest to collect the Thirteen Treasures of Rule in an effort to overcome the evil substance "Dark Water" and stop it overwhelming the alien world of Mer.

The original series featured the voice of Roddy McDowell as Niddler, but on rebroadcast his character was voiced by Frank Welker. Overruns with production costs and missed deadlines caused the series to be abandoned after 21 episodes with only eight of the thirteen Treasures collected.

#2: Captain Pugwash
Modern spoofs notwithstanding this was one of the seminal TV pirate shows. First shown on the BBC in 1957, a total of 86 five-minute episodes were produced, the last in 1975.

Captain of the Black Pig, Pugwash was a simple man who was no match for his arch-enemy Cut-Throat Jake of the 'Flying Dustman.' Luckily Pugwash was always rescued by the cunning and courage of the Black Pig's cabin boy Tom. The well known and extremely catchy (to the point of becoming an ear-worm) theme tune is The Trumpet Hornpipe.

#1: Popeye
Popeye's history as a comic strip stretches back to 1929, but he first appeared in animated form in 1933, along with girlfriend Olive Oyl and mortal enemy (and rival for Olive's affections) Bluto, soon becoming more popular than Mickey Mouse. The animated short films were retraced in colour for the TV market starting in 1985, and were remastered for a Cartoon Network version of The Popeye Show which ran between 2001 and 2004. Popeye cartoons have been broadcast on Cartoon Network's spin-off channel Boomerang as recently as July of this year.