Almost 20 years ago, a pair of fresh British sketch comedians armed with good ideas and a capable director with a cache of film stocks made a fascinating short film, “The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island.” The 25-minute outing at the 2008 Edinburgh Film Festival won an award, was nominated for the BAFTA, and announced the arrival of Timkey and Tom Basden. The two spent years turning their absurd humorous favors into sketch comedy shows, radio episodes, stand-up poetry tours, and sidekick roles in film and television.
However, they never returned to Wallis Island.
Until now. Older, grey, perhaps a little clever, friend, former roommate and longtime collaborator expanded their first concept to the feature film The Ballad of Wallis Island. The film revolves around a musician who is anti-mined with love and loss and is hired by two lottery winners to do private gigs on an isolated island. It feels like it was created only by filmmakers with a small path under their feet.
“We really don't regret not making it 17 years ago. We may not have been able to get it right. “When we got back to it, I think we were ready to make it a decent fist.”
The original director, James Griffiths, is back, and the main conceit of the short ruins: musician Herb McWyer (Basden) arrives on the fictional island of Wallis (pictured in and around Carmarthenshire, Wales) with no harbor and plays a concert for his enthusiastic audience (Heath of Key). To build the story, Basden and Key introduce Nell Mortimer, played by Carey Mulligan, former singer and lover of short-lived duo McGwyer Mortimer. When she appears on an island unknown to McGwyer, her solo career doesn't go as planned – the film has gained emotional weight.
“You get a window into what they were like when they were young and how life doesn't ruin their expectations as young people in the music industry and as young couples in love,” said Basden, who wrote the film's song. “When you work on it meaningfully, I think you always need to write about the losses, heartbreak and regrets that come with your relationship in your 20s.”
As a result, John Carney's music-driven films will delight fascinating crowds like “One” and “Sing Street,” but be careful not to hit those chords too hard. “Wallis Island” is holding a round of US film festivals and will delight audiences at both Sundance and SXSW before it is released in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. (It will be widened on April 18th.)
After the film was screened, we caught up with the SXSW star and Basden took to the stage to perform the film's songs. That moment reminded Mulligan why she only performed in films, not in real life. “I don't know how I did that,” Mulligan told Basden the next morning over a plate of fruit. She returned to her press conference when she was placed on stage to sing alongside Patty Smith, Gillian Welch and other music experts. “It was the most horrifying thing I've ever done, more than anything else.
By contrast, Basden, now 45, has been doing it for decades. He and Key, 48, first met as members of Footlight, the Cambridge University improvisation group. Basden was a student. The key pretends to be one. (His imaginary field of study: Advanced degree of Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol.) The work has been transformed into a sketch comedy group called Co-Sick, who they wrote and performed The Skit. The two made three short films together and appeared regularly in each other's works.
In one live stand-up pop-up called “Frieze,” Key plays the bully into Basden's serious singer-songwriter character, cutting him off as he plays and chuckles the song. “It was a really good dynamic because I was really irrational with him, very aggressive and the audience could see that he was really talented,” Key said.
Basden urged him to let go of the key by putting framed notes from the relevant audience in his bathroom. “He's really bad, and he's so mean to you,” reads the letter.
Key and Basden find themselves getting quite emotional when they toured America with “Wallis Island.”
“It feels like a dream to be able to create this feature,” said Key, best known to the Anglo Files as the sidekick for Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan's incompetent broadcaster character. “Tom and I enjoy things together, but this was kind of a pinnacle and something we should aim for,” he added. “So we all have it all — at once — it's very overwhelming.”
Part of the emotion is based on how long it took to reorganize the feature film. Key, Basden and Griffiths have spent their script development solely on developing the script. Griffith calls it “a long walk to a café that is closed on the windy beach.” He said, “We all felt that there was a possibility of something again and we saw it slip through our hands a little.”
Mulligan was able to help make “Wallis Island” come true, courtesy of her husband Marcus Mumford, the lead singer of the band Mumford & Sons. Mumford is a “obsession” fan of Key's Date Night Poetry Show and contacted Key via Instagram.
“It's surrounded by my bathroom,” Kie joked.
Mulligan then follows up and asks Key if he will host a charity warchild couple's event (Mulligan is the global ambassador for a group supporting children in war-torn countries). The key declined. “I was absolutely stoned,” he said.
However, after he held Mulligan's email and created the role of Nell, Mulligan stood at the top of the list. Key enjoyed telling his collaborators that he had a direct line to his future and his much more famous co-stars. Until he realized he was at the crisis: “This was a huge fork on the road and if I thought I was lying about Carrie Mulligan, it was a huge loss of trust from both of them,” he said with a laugh. “I think I spent a lot of time on this email. It was like a three-month project. I'm going through development.”
