‘You don’t love me… You love the past.’
I was supposed to see James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island in a special screening that included an interview with co-writer and star Tim Key back in May of 2025, but my daughter’s continuous cavalcade of illnesses put paid to that. After this unfortunate event (or rather non-event), I put off watching the film because I knew I would love it and I knew I would also be even more devastated than I was initially to miss that special screening. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened…
Eccentric millionaire Charles Heath (Key) pays former musical duo and current estranged lovers Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) a huge sum of money to reunite for a special gig on the remote island on which he lives. He craftily fails to inform Herb that Nell will be there at all, however, and also doesn’t tell either of them that he will be the only person in attendance. Akemnji Ndifornyen plays Nell’s birdwatching obsessive husband, Michael, and Sian Clifford appears as the island’s only shopkeeper and potential love interest for Charles.
Now, it should be said that I adore Key and Basden (I’m an avid listener to Tim Key’s Poetry Programme, in which they play heightened and surrealist versions of themselves), but even taking that into account, I was surprised at the level of feeling this film inspired within me. The fictional musical duo McGwyer and Mortimer are clearly a pastiche of the earnest, acoustic folk acts that thrived in the 2000s and early 2010s (their NME cover is mocked up to appear as if from that era and they namecheck The Libertines), so the musical side of things was always going to appeal to a man who came of age during that era. It also helps that the songs (all composed by Basden and performed live by Basden and Mulligan) are genuinely wonderful. By using these songs, the film explores the inimitable Proustian rush that music can sometimes inspire.
The concept, inspired by a short produced by Griffiths, Key and Basden entitled The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, is an ingenious one, but it is the performances that really make this film sing. Key has never been better. Charles is at once a hopeless romantic, hopelessly naive and a constant irritant to Basden’s brooding and moody Herb. The true tragedy of Charles’ past is only revealed piecemeal and at irregular intervals throughout the film, but once we reach the emotional climax, Key sells it beautifully. The final 15 minutes of the film are genuinely beautiful. This is far from a dark story, however. It’s a testament to the craft of everyone involved that in spite of moments of real introspection and darkness, this is also the funniest film of 2025. Endlessly quotable, it is destined to become a cult classic in the future.
Mulligan, constantly referred to as the only ‘proper’ actor on set by Key in the promotional material, is utterly perfect. I fully believed in her character. Her mannerism. Her motivations. Her decisions. Indeed, I think I fell in love with Nell Mortimor for a second there. Elsewhere, Clifford is as dependable as ever, delivering an uncharacteristically sweet performance, and while Ndifornyen is funny throughout, there is a nagging feeling that the inclusion of his character is the only misstep here. An unconvincing plot contrivance used to get rid of him for the middle section of the film begs the question as to why he was included at all.
If you can’t tell already, I absolutely adored this film. It’s the kind of picture that makes you want to message everyone you know to tell them to watch it immediately. When the credits rolled, I wasn’t quite ready to leave Wallis Island, and as I write this a couple of days later, I feel like a part of me is still there. It’s rare for what is essentially a comedy to have such a profound impact on me, but here we are. The Ballad of Wallis Island, much like McGwyer and Mortimor’s debut single ‘Raspberry Fair’, is an instant classic.
