--- name: "Tim Key" canonical: "https://film.one/person/tim-key" fi1m_id: "tim-key" imdb_id: "nm2764713" tmdb_id: 1016119 wikidata_id: "Q7803772" roles: ["Actor"] born: "2 September 1976" reviewed_on_fi1m: 7 average_fi1m_score: 66 average_as: "actor" average_over: 6 updated: "2026-10-12T19:58:37.745255+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Tim Key ## Identity Tim Key - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tim-key - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** tim-key - **IMDb ID:** nm2764713 - **TMDB ID:** 1016119 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7803772 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Key, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7803772, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2764713/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1016119 Actor. Born 2 September 1976 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 2 September 1976, Cambridgeshire, England, UK - **Active:** 2006–present - **Also known as:** Timothy Key - **Titles on Fi1m:** 7: 6 acting, 1 other - **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as actor, over 6 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 75 (1), 2010s 82 (1), 2020s 64 (5) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 64 to 62 across 5 titles - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 6, Drama 2, Mystery 2, Adventure 1, Crime 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $183m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Key, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7803772, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2764713/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1016119 ## Streaming the US now - **Peacock:** [*The Ballad of Wallis Island*](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-wallis-island.md) (78) - **HBO Max:** [*Mickey 17*](https://film.one/film/mickey-17.md) (70) - **Netflix:** [*Love Wedding Repeat*](https://film.one/film/love-wedding-repeat.md) (42) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Tim Key > Tim Key plays men who cannot bear a silence and fill it with tea, puns and anecdotes nobody asked for. In the right film you can hear what the talking is for; in the wrong one it is the only thing worth staying for. Charles Heath, in *The Ballad of Wallis Island* (2025), offers Herb a cup of tea before Herb is out of his wet clothes. He answers questions nobody has asked and narrates his own walk to the kitchen. This is the Key part, and it is more or less the man he has been playing for fifteen years: someone who has learned to fill every gap because of what might otherwise be heard in it. He talks in puns, mostly, in a flat, hopeful voice, and the joke is never that he is stupid. It is that he has rehearsed being interesting and got it slightly wrong. He came to it sideways. He joined the Cambridge Footlights in 2001 without being a Cambridge student, met Tom Basden there and formed the sketch group Cowards with him, then spent years at the Edinburgh Fringe reading short, absurd poems, often off playing cards. Wider notice came in 2010 as Sidekick Simon in *Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge*, the normalising and faintly irritating foil to Steve Coogan, a part he kept through *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013) and later series. Supporting turns in *Peep Show* and *Inside No. 9* followed, and the poetry and radio never stopped. The features are recent: *Wallis Island*, co-written with Basden and directed by James Griffiths, who also made their 2007 short; Pigeon Man in Bong Joon Ho's *Mickey 17* (2025), a part our review found no cause to mention; and *The Paper*, the American spin-off of *The Office*, the same year. What he does that other comic actors do not is sincerity with the volume turned down. Sidney in *Love Wedding Repeat* (2020) is written as dull and nothing else, and Key plays him as a man delivering anecdotes he has practised, with a look on his face that hopes nobody will interrupt. We laughed properly twice in that film and both times it was him; the rest of it sat around a handsome Italian villa and waited for a farce that landed one joke in three. Charles in *Wallis Island* is Sidney with a reason, and Basden knows how to write him one. The script has a single engine, that Charles cannot stop talking and Herb cannot stand it, and Key keeps it running far longer than it should. The film gets round, in its own time, to why Charles talks, and we will not say what it finds. The limits are real. He plays one man, give or take a haircut, and most of the people who know how to write for that man have known him since 2001. He has said that comic and dramatic acting are both "all about finding the truth", and the truth he finds is always the same small one: a person alone in a room, keen to be liked. That is enough for a supporting part in almost any British comedy, and it is enough for a lead when the film around him is about loneliness. Start with *Wallis Island*, where the talking has somewhere to go, and wait to see whether anyone else can give him a reason to stop. ## Biography Tim Key is an English actor, writer, comedian and poet. Born on 2 September 1976 in Cambridgeshire, he studied Russian at the University of Sheffield and performed with Cambridge Footlights before appearing regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2009 for his solo show *The Slutcracker*. Key is known for playing Sidekick Simon in the Alan Partridge films and series, and for roles in *See How They Run* (2022), *Wicked Little Letters* (2024) and *Mickey 17* (2025), in which he appeared as Pigeon Man. He co-wrote the screenplay for and starred as Charles Heath in *The Ballad of Wallis Island* (2025), which received several BAFTA and British Independent Film Award nominations. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (7) ### Performed in (6) — the average rests on these - *Mickey 17* (2025), Fi1m 70, as Pigeon Man — [page](https://film.one/film/mickey-17.md) - *The Ballad of Wallis Island* (2025), Fi1m 78, as Charles Heath — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-wallis-island.md) - *Wicked Little Letters* (2024), Fi1m 61, as Father Ambrose — [page](https://film.one/film/wicked-little-letters.md) - *See How They Run* (2022), Fi1m 70, as Commissioner Harrold Scott — [page](https://film.one/film/see-how-they-run.md) - *Love Wedding Repeat* (2020), Fi1m 42, as Sidney — [page](https://film.one/film/love-wedding-repeat.md) - *Saxondale* (2006), Fi1m 75, as Promotions Guy — [page](https://film.one/tv/saxondale.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Taskmaster* (2015), Fi1m 82, as Self — [page](https://film.one/tv/taskmaster.md) ## Complete filmography (57) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *New Zealand Spy* (2026), series, as Hilton - *The Paper* (2025), series, as Ken Davies - *Stroke of Genius* (2025), as Narrator (voice) - *The Ballad of Wallis Island* (2025), as Charles Heath · Screenplay, Executive Producer — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-wallis-island.md) - *Mickey 17* (2025), as Pigeon Man — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/mickey-17.md) - *Wicked Little Letters* (2024), as Father Ambrose — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/wicked-little-letters.md) - *The Horne Section TV Show* (2022), series, as Ken Longlevers - *See How They Run* (2022), as Commissioner Harrold Scott — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/see-how-they-run.md) - *Here We Go* (2022), series, as Ray - *The Witchfinder* (2022), series, as Gideon Bannister - *Talk Radio* (2021), as Danny Mallard (voice) - *Days of the Bagnold Summer* (2020), as Dale - *No More Jockeys* (2020), series, as Creator - *Love Wedding Repeat* (2020), as Sidney — Fi1m 42, [page](https://film.one/film/love-wedding-repeat.md) - *Greed* (2019), as Sam - *Brassic* (2019), series, as Vortex — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/brassic.md) - *After Life* (2019), series, as Rude Date - *Wonderdate* (2018), as Man · Writer - *Trust* (2018), series, as Gavin - *Regular* (2017), as Regular - *The Overcoat* (2017), as Narrator - *Gap Year* (2017), series, as Greg - *Pls Like* (2017), series, as James Wirm - *Zapped* (2016), series, as Sextus - *Stag* (2016), series, as Aitken - *Year Friends* (2016), series, as Peter Priest - *I Decided to Leave* (2015), as Man (voice) - *Together* (2015), series, as Joseph the Policeman - *Cradle to Grave* (2015), series, as Stutely - *Tree* (2015), Actor - *Anthony* (2014), as Santa · Writer - *Two Films About Loneliness* (2014), Actor - *The Dog Thrower* (2014), as Jonah - *The Double* (2014), as Care Worker - *Sardines* (2014), as Ian - *Inside No. 9* (2014), series, as Ian — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/inside-no-9.md) - *The Harry Hill Movie* (2013), as Toilet Attendant - *Very Few Fish* (2013), as Jimbo - *Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa* (2013), as Sidekick Simon - *Plebs* (2013), series, as Mushki - *I Give It a Year* (2013), as Alan - *A Young Doctor's Notebook* (2012), series, as Pyotr the Patient - *Games On: Tent* (2012), as Dan - *Playhouse Presents* (2012), series, as Jonah - *One Day* (2011), as Customer - *Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge* (2010), series, as Sidekick Simon - *No More Women* (2009), series, Creator - *We Need Answers* (2009), series, Creator - *Cowards* (2009), series, Writer - *Angelo's* (2007), series, as Steve - *The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island* (2007), as Charles Heath · Writer - *Skins* (2007), series, as Dr. O'Dwyer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/skins.md) - *Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive* (2006), series, as Kim - *Saxondale* (2006), series, as Promotions Guy — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/saxondale.md) - *Celebrity Mastermind* (2003), series, Actor - *Peep Show* (2003), series, as Jerry — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/peep-show.md) - *Sausage Poem*, Writer ## Gallery - ![Cast & James Griffith (Director) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of "Ballad of Wallis Island"](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-47adb32ed087.jpg) Cast & James Griffith (Director) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of "Ballad of Wallis Island" — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-11_Full.jpg/1280px-2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-11_Full.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Tim Key at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of "Ballad of Wallis Island"](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-64d397c4a10d.jpg) Tim Key at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of "Ballad of Wallis Island" — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-41_Full.jpg/1280px-2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-41_Full.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Tim Key](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-3bd31613be87.jpg) Tim Key — Everwest, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-41_Full_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-2025_01_25_Sundance_Film_Festival-41_Full_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Mark Watson rehearsing (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-f56331c5698e.jpg) Mark Watson rehearsing (2011) — Steve Bowbrick from Radlett, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Mark_Watson_rehearsing_%285487636034%29.jpg/1280px-Mark_Watson_rehearsing_%285487636034%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Tim Key](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-8ec350d62647.jpg) Tim Key — Image via TMDB - ![Tim Key](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-03f827cd9cac.jpg) Tim Key — Image via TMDB - ![Tim Key with the Horne Section (2010)](https://film.one/media/person/8428/gallery-5fdc2cc97f0b.jpg) Tim Key with the Horne Section (2010) — Chris Fleming, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Tim_Key_Horne_Section.jpg/1280px-Tim_Key_Horne_Section.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/tim-key