The Mersey Pirate was a British children's television programme that was shown in 1979. Based aboard a ship (The Royal Iris) 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. Most ITV regions showed the programme, though several (including Anglia, Tyne Tees, 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.