Tim Key

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Tim Key
Key at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025
Born	Timothy Key (1976-09-02) 2 September 1976 (age 49) Cambridge, England
Alma mater	University of Sheffield (BA)
Occupations	Actor comedian poet radio personality screenwriter
Years active	2001–present
Website	timkey.co.uk

Timothy Key (born 2 September 1976) is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, both as a solo act and as part of the comedy group Cowards, and plays Sidekick Simon in various Alan Partridge film and television projects. In 2009, he won the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.

Key was born on 2 September 1976,^[1] in Cambridge.^[2][3] He grew up in Impington, Cambridgeshire,^[4] and was educated at Impington Village College before moving on to Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge and then the University of Sheffield, where he studied Russian. Following graduation, he returned to Cambridge and joined the Cambridge Footlights, despite not being a student of Cambridge University.^[5] There he met Tom Basden, Stefan Golaszewski, and Lloyd Woolf, with whom he formed the sketch group Cowards.

Key's first appearance with the Footlights was in the stage production Far Too Happy in 2001.^[6] The cast, which included Mark Watson and Sophie Winkleman, took the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and were nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. Key has regularly attended Edinburgh ever since, performing in solo shows and collaborations.

In 2009, Key's solo poetry show The Slutcracker won the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.^[7] He took the show to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the following year.

Key co-starred in Daniel Kitson's play Tree when it premiered in September 2013 at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.^[8] The play then transferred to The Old Vic in 2015.^[9] He appeared alongside Paul Ritter and Rufus Sewell in Yasmina Reza's Art at The Old Vic, directed by Matthew Warchus, from December 2016 to February 2017.^[10]

Key's comedy show Megadate toured from 2017 to 2018. Like The Slutcracker, it featured Key reading "deliberately bad" poetry interspersed with black-and-white films.^[11]

In 2023, Key toured his sell-out show Mulberry around the UK and Ireland,^[12] as well as a run at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City.^[13] The theme of the show was Key's experience of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Britain.

Key has regularly been heard on BBC Radio 4 since 2006, when the station commissioned All Bar Luke, a series based on his earlier stage show Luke & Stella. It aired from 2006 to 2008, with a Christmas special in 2009. Key's prior radio projects included Cowards and Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better.

In 2010, Key played Duncan in the radio sitcom Party, created by Tom Basden and based on the stage show of the same name.^[14] In 2012, he reunited with Basden for Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme, a series that features Key reading poetry and Basden providing musical accompaniment, intercut with dialogue between the two. Six series of the show have been broadcast as of 2024.^[15]

Key's first album, Tim Key. With a String Quartet. On a Boat. was released by The Invisible Dot Ltd / Angular Records in November 2010. It features Key reading poetry backed by a string quartet, with interjections from Basden.

Key was a contestant on the first series of Britain's Worst Driver and received a car but sold it after a week.^[16]

Key first appeared on television in a comic role in 2006's satirical comedy Time Trumpet, as an Eastenders special effects supervisor. The next year, he appeared as himself in Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, reading poetry. He also appeared in an episode of Saxondale alongside future Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge co-star Steve Coogan.

In 2009, Key (along with Mark Watson and Alex Horne) co-created We Need Answers for BBC Four, a comedic quiz show in which celebrities answer questions posed by question-answering text services. It was hosted by Watson, with Horne providing technical support and Key reading questions.^[17] As part of the show's bonus online content, the BBC uploaded videos of Key and Watson playing No More Women, a parlour game they had invented several years earlier, with Horne supplying narration. The three reunited in 2020 to play the game as a trio, renaming it No More Jockeys.

In November 2010, Key appeared as "Sidekick Simon" alongside Steve Coogan on Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, an online series based on Coogan's Alan Partridge character. The series was also broadcast on Sky Atlantic in 2012. Key would appear again as Simon in the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and the BBC series This Time with Alan Partridge.

In 2013, Key played Greg in the E4 comedy-drama series Gap Year. In 2014, he played Ian in the Inside No. 9 episode "Sardines". His performance was praised,^[18] with one journalist calling him "an unsung hero of British comedy".^[19] The following year, he was a panellist on the first series of Taskmaster and has been credited as a "Task Consultant" since the show's second series.

Key has also had minor roles in shows such as Skins, Plebs, Life's Too Short, Stag, Peep Show, Brassic and The End of the F***ing World. He has also appeared on panel shows Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Richard Osman's House of Games.

In 2022, Key starred in the BBC Two comedy series The Witchfinder. That year he also appeared as Ray, nemesis and old archery teammate of Paul (Jim Howick) in an episode of friend Tom Basden's BBC1 sitcom, Here We Go.

In 2023, he appeared on the Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer, opening up about his experience of being diagnosed with a melanoma.^[20]

In 2024, he appeared in the last episode of Inside No. 9 as himself.^[21]

In 2025, Key starred as "Ken" in Peacock's The Paper, a follow up and spinoff to The Office.^[22]

Key and Basden collaborated on a short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island in 2007. The film won Best UK Short at the 2007 Edinburgh Film Festival, was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA in the category of Best Short Film and, in 2025, was the basis for the feature length film The Ballad of Wallis Island. In 2012, Key collaborated with director J. van Tulleken on one of 16 short films to have won production funding through BFI Shorts. The resultant film was a black comedy entitled Anthony, starring Key and Basden, in which Key played Santa Claus.^[23]

Key reprised his role as Sidekick Simon for Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge film Alpha Papa, released in August 2013. Also in 2013, he appeared in the Richard Ayoade film The Double. In 2019, he again starred alongside Coogan in Greed, playing the character of Sam. In 2022, he played Commissioner Harrold Scott in See How They Run. In 2025, he played Pigeon Man in Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17.

Key has written seven books. The first, Instructions, Guidelines, Tutelage, Suggestions, Other Suggestions and Examples Etc.: An Attempted Book by Tim Key. (And Conversations / Descriptions / A Piece About a Moth), was published in 2009. The second, 25 Poems, 3 Recipes and 32 Other Suggestions (An Inventory) was published in 2011. The third, The Incomplete Tim Key, was published by Canongate Books in 2011.

In 2020, Key collaborated with designer Emily Juniper to create He Used Thought As a Wife (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Inside). This book, published by Utter and Press, chronicles Key's experiences during the UK's first COVID-19 lockdown. A sequel, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Outside), was released in 2022.

Key released a new poetry anthology, "Chapters", in February 2024.^[24] Poetic Justice noted its humour and "subversive focus on the contemporary world".^[25]In 2025 Key released L.A Baby a semi-fictionalised collection of poems and conversations charting his trip to Los Angeles.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island	Charles	Short film
	Christmas at the Riviera	Gary	TV movie
2009	The Transaction	The Poet	Short film
2010	The Honeymoon Suite	Samuel	Short film
2011	One Day	Customer
2013	I Give It a Year	Alan
	Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa	'Sidekick' Simon Denton
	The Double	Care Worker
	The Harry Hill Movie	Toilet Attendant
	Very Few Fish	Jimbo	TV movie
2014	Anthony	Santa	Short film
	Two Films About Loneliness	Jonathan Smallman (voice)	Short film
	Not now Keith!	Keith	Short film
2017	The Overcoat	The Narrator	Short film
2018	Wonderdate	Man	TV short
2019	Days of the Bagnold Summer	Dale
	Greed	Sam
2020	Love Wedding Repeat	Sidney
	Talk Radio	Danny Mallard	Short film
2022	See How They Run	Commissioner Harold Scott
2023	Wicked Little Letters	Father Ambrose
2025	Mickey 17	Pigeon Man
	The Ballad of Wallis Island	Charles	Also co-writer

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Britain's Worst Driver	Himself (series 1); "Timid Tim"	Eliminated second
2006	Saxondale	Promotions Guy	Episode: "Mice"
	Time Trumpet	Special Effects Crew – Eastenders	Episode: "Witness to a Wedding"
2007	Annually Retentive	Kim	Episode: "Episode #2.5"
	Angelo's	Steve	Episode: "Episode #1.4"
2009	Cowards		Also writer
2010–2016	Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge	Sidekick Simon
2011	Life's Too Short	News Reporter	Episode: "Episode #1.2"
2012	Skins	Dr. O'Dwyer	Episode: "Mini and Franky"
	Games On	Dan	Episode: "Tent"
	A Young Doctor's Notebook	Pyotr the Patient	Episode: "Episode Three"
	8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	Guest in the Dictionary Corner	Episode: "Episode #1.1"
2013	Chickens	Thomas	Episode: "Men on Leave"
2014	Inside No. 9	Ian	Episode: "Sardines"
	Playhouse Presents	Jonah	Episode: "The Dog Thrower"
	Plebs	Mushki	Episode: "The New Slave"
2015	Cradle to Grave	Stutely	2 episodes
	Together	Joseph the Policeman	4 episodes
	Peep Show	Jerry	3 episodes
2015–present	Taskmaster	Himself (series 1); Task consultant (series 2–)	6 episodes (as Himself)
2016	Stag	Aitken	Episode: "Episode 1"
	Year Friends	Peter Priest	3 episodes
2016–2017	Drunk History: UK	Various Characters	5 episodes
2017–2021	Pls Like	James Wirm
2017	Gap Year	Greg
	Comedy Playhouse	The Sheriff of Nottingham	Episode: "Tim Vine Travels in Time"
	Zapped	Sextus	Episode: "Showtime"
	Detectorists	Tim	3 episodes
	Random Acts	Regular	Episode: "Episode #4.3"
2018	Trust	Gavin	Episode: "John, Chapter 11"
2019–2021	This Time with Alan Partridge	'Sidekick' Simon Denton
2019	Brassic	Vortex	2 episodes
	The Reluctant Landlord	Tommy	Episode: "Love Is in the Air"
	The End of the F***ing World	Gus	2 episodes
2021	The Irregulars	Gregson	2 episodes
	Stath Lets Flats	Howard	Episode: "Here Comes The Steven"
	Cryptids		Episode: "Owlman"
2022	After Life	Rude Date	Episode: "Episode #3.4"
	The Witchfinder	Gideon Bannister
	Richard Osman's House of Games	Himself	Episode: "Episodes #6.46 to #6.50
	Here We Go	Ray	Episode: "Dad's Bronze Medal"
	The Train
2023	The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off	Himself / Contestant	Charity special[26]
2024	Inside No. 9	Himself	Episode: "Plodding On"
	Funny Woman	Lawyer	Episode:
2025	The Paper	Ken Davies	Main cast
	How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)	Sidekick Simon

• Instructions, Guidelines, Tutelage, Suggestions, Other Suggestions and Examples Etc.: An Attempted Book By Tim Key. (And Conversations/ Descriptions/ A Piece About A Moth). The Invisible Dot Ltd, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9553703-3-5
• The Incomplete Tim Key. Canongate Books Ltd, 2011. ISBN 978-0-85786-118-4
• 25 Poems, 3 Recipes and 32 Other Suggestions (An Inventory). The Invisible Dot Ltd, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9553703-6-6
• He Used Thought As A Wife (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Inside.) "Utter" and Press, 2020. ISBN 9781916222649
• Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (An Anthology of Poems and Conversations from Outside.) "Utter" and Press, 2022. ISBN 9781916222663
• Chapters "Utter" and Press, 2023. ISBN 9781916222687
• L.A. Baby! "Utter" and Press, 2025. ISBN 1916222692

• Tim Key at IMDb