Tim Key

A stand-up comedian whose show The Slutcracker won the comedy award at the Edinburgh Festival last year and was described as “eccentric”, “shambolic” and “strangely beautiful”, Tim Key is a hard man to pigeonhole. And he is all the more successful for it. His talents embrace poetry, sketch comedy (with the troupe Cowards), short films (he co-wrote with Tom Basden and starred in the Bafta-nominated The One And Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island) and acting, in addition to the stand-up, and he works both alone and with a close set of creative collaborators including fellow Stars of Tomorrow Basden and Jonathan Van Tulleken. Key’s interest in film-making began with Herb McGwyer and he is now branching into the longer format. First out of the blocks will be Tile City, co-written with Basden. After that, he hopes to develop a longer version of the black-and-white silent shorts he has made with Van Tulleken. He is also keen to explore the idea of setting a film in Russia. “I would like to write something in the spirit of Nuts In May. I’m quite fascinated by Russia, and the idea of traipsing around Siberia with a small crew would be fun. In fact, thinking about it, I suppose the aim is to make a Siberian Nuts In May.” And why so many strings to his bow? “Once you start getting more opportunities in each discipline, it becomes more difficult to walk away,” he says.