Based on the exceptionally funny 2007 short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, The Ballad of Wallis Island reunites the short’s director, James Griffiths (a prolific television director, as well as the film Cuban Fury), and co-writers/co-stars/comedy partners Tom Basden and Tim Key. Together, they tell the story of an eccentric lottery winner, Charles (Key), who attempts to make his dream come true by getting his favorite musicians, the folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, back together to play a private reunion concert at his home on a fictional remote Welsh island. Basden (who also wrote all of the songs heard in the film) plays Herb McGwyer, who realizes quickly after arriving on said isle that he’s been lured there under slightly false pretenses, not realizing his former musical partner (and lover) Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) is part of the package. Old feelings and tension resurface immediately, but so do memories of why the music was so good in the first place.
Easily one of the best films of the year so far, The Ballad of Wallis Island finds unexpected ways to be romantic, extremely funny, and poignant in its examination of nostalgia and chemistry, as well as the healing power of music. It may sound corny, but it’s a terrific, charming, heartfelt work with memorable tunes and a note-perfect performances (Sian Clifford rounds out the cast as local shopkeeper Amanda, a potential love interest for Charles, who is still getting over the death of his beloved wife).
I had the chance to chat with Basden, Key and Griffiths recently, although to be completely transparent, I’d initially been told that Griffiths wasn’t available to be part of the interview, which is one of the reasons I don’t have many question aimed directly at him. We discuss adapting the short, Key’s unique delivery as Charles, and getting Mulligan involved in their shenanigans. Please enjoy…
First of all, I want to say to Tim, when I saw you pop up in Mickey 17, my heart jumped out of my chest. I was totally surprised and thrilled.
Tim Key: And it was a thrill working with director Bong, but thank you.
I did watch the short recently, and I was surprised how many of the beats from that are still in the feature. That being said, when you finally turned your attention to making this a screenplay for the feature, what elements did you want to amplify or get rid of. Obviously, you bring in new characters as well. What did that process look like?
TK: I’ll do the easy bit. We looked at the short again, and it was difficult, because we love the short, and if it fit for going to into the feature, you want to keep it. I don’t think we would have kept any more than we did. I think we’ve kept quite a lot; there are a couple of shots and scenes, but then there are other bits where we could have kept more that you just have all of the essence of it and know that you’re making a new film. So we have a lot of the stuff we like, and after that, you work out what your feature film is. It can’t just be that story; it must be something that has more depth. In terms of the characters, we knew we wanted to have a past, a love interest, and a former collaborator for Herb, and that unlocked it and turned the middle 40 minutes into something with more emotional heft. But in terms of themes, these guys will speak more articulately.
Tom Basden: In terms of the short, as I’m sure you noticed when you watched it, is that the two characters are complete strangers, and it’s about two strangers who are trying to feel their way around each other and achieve something like a friendship or a kind of tolerance in the short . And there are massive limitations to that. I think we got as much as we could out of that short film, which is longer than most short films. We understood that it was important to bring in characters that could show off our main characters, Herb and Charles, in a different light. Particularly bringing in Nell is really helpful, not only for unlocking the emotional side of the story, but it’s also a way to see how the dynamic changes and suddenly see Herb in a different light, and you also understand Charles’s relationship with the music in a different light.
We wanted to make a film that spoke more about what it’s like to be in your mid-40s looking back on your 20s and having lived a little bit and made a few mistakes. It’s also about feeling nostalgic about certain times in your life and the way that music interacts with that. Inevitably there were things in the story that changed and characters that had to come in, but as Tim said, there were things from the short that we felt, particularly in the first act, that we really believed in and worked really well, and we’ve seen audiences enjoy over the years, so we wanted to stick with the stuff that we thought was successful.
James Griffiths: My job was to try and expand that world and give it more scope than the short. The short film was my first narrative piece; I’d done music videos and commercials before that. When I watch that short, I’m a little bit embarrassed at my own work on it, not because of these guys . Over those years, I’ve been trying to hone the craft and get better at storytelling. That was the challenge for me, to shine the light on what these lovely people do. They’re my friends, but I’m also a huge fan and want to see them on screen, doing what they do. That one part of the joy of it was to see them shine and giving them room and space to do that. But also, we want to tell a story that felt like it was visually entertaining for an audience and create a world, and I think we did that successfully.
I will say that because of the short, the song “16 Pounds and Three Rosy Apples” is stuck in my head forever. So thank you for that.
TB: You’re welcome, or I’m sorry; whichever is appropriate.
Tom, you said this was about people looking back 20 years on their youth. You must have gone through something similar making the film, and using as your jumping-off point, a film you made 18 years ago. This took a while to get turned into a feature, and in that time, you’ve all led lives, maybe had variations of some of the choices and mistakes and disappointment that these characters have had. You probably couldn’t have made this film 15 years ago.
TB: I think that’s absolutely right. Or we would have made a different film. That’s something that’s crept up on us a bit as you begin to watch the film outside of the editing suite, just watch the film and become aware that we’ve all been on a similar journey to the characters in this film, where we’re returning to a time in our lives that was very creatively fulfilling, but also able to finish it and say goodbye to it. There’s something very funny about the way the film does that.
TK: Is this the end of our collaboration?
TB: Yeah.
TK: Oh . Thanks for wheedling that out.
TB: I think it’s the end of this project.
JG: As artists, it’s much more relatable in terms of personal lives of creatives or artists, it’s very common that you end up somewhere in your life looking back and thinking “I didn’t imagine I’d be here,” or “I’d imagined I’d be here.” You get that with Herb, that he’s made these choices that have led him down his path, when really what he wants is to get something pure back and get back his love of making music, and I felt that when I was making the film. I’ve spend a lot of time where everything in the business is very outcome based with pilots and getting shows on the air, and that’s all wonderful, but really I was just so focused on this project and the purity of making a film with your friends; that’s what it’s about, and I want to do that more because I don’t want this to end
Tom, your songs are the bedrock that this movie is built on, but Tim, Charles’s conversational cadence is very musical too. I’ve never heard anyone deliver dialogue like that here, from the phrasing to the wordplay. Is that something uniquely of the place or is that you? What would you ascribe that to.
TK: I can’t explain that. I don’t know what’s happening really. It’s part of coming up with a character, but I think that was definitely the plan. I can’t remember if we talked about this in the short, but for this, I do remember that we had that conversation that he should never switch off. There’s a film called Spider, and in that, you get this constant chatter—he’s in a different mind space, the chap in that—but I like the fact that he’s constantly going and going. There are definitely other characters I’ve done when we used to write sketches that have this kind of verbal diarrhea going on, but he’s an extreme example, and it was completely deliberate that whenever he’s on screen, he’s just chuntering away. And a lot of if was written, but once you’ve been living with him for a good period, you do find that it is quite easy to keep doing it. My guy, I can just keep thinking of words; it’s not difficult. He says what he sees as well, rather than there be silence, he’ll say “Oh, the lamp.” Why not? He’s just commenting on things around him, adding absolutely nothing to what’s going on, but he feels like keeping everything moving and fun.
It also seems like he’s talking because he can’t believe this is all happening to him, and he has to remind himself it’s real by saying what’s going on in front of him.
TK: I thinks so, I think that is what’s happening. If he stopped, he might cry or fall to his knees and say “My god, I cannot believe you’re here.” So he just keeps himself moving by talking about absolutely nothing and staying alive and trying to not let himself down. But it’s a nice dynamic, because no one would really like to be in the same room as that person, but Herb just wants to just lie low until the gig, and he gets exactly the opposite of that.
JG: I think you’ve stumbled on something with the musicality. Certainly having watched them on stage 20 years ago and falling in love with them finding their sensibility, which really struck a chord with me. It is really specific, and they’ve got this incredible chemistry together, so there’s a generosity that’s happening, but also a bravery and boldness about it. It really is a connectivity that you don’t get unless you’ve spend 20 years living and breathing together. Creativity, and this is why I’m so proud of the film and my association with them, they deserve to get people seeing what they do.
TK: It’s great that we got Griff, who directed the short. If we’d given it to someone else, they might have examined the words and wonder “Where does that get us?” Griff has faith that the vibe that’s happening in the film is going to be a good one and that the atmosphere that all of this back and forth will create is what is going to be underpinning it all.
TB: With a different director or editor, you can imagine them just cutting through the dialogue, cutting to singles to get to the dialogue. There would be people watching the first 20 minutes of the film and wondering “Why don’t we get rid of all this air?” But as you say, there is a kind of music to it, and I think a lot of the comedy is the fact that Charles is trying to get Herb to respond, and Herb is actively trying not the respond, and it’s this push-pull game and this character who’s trying to elicit a response, and a character who’s trying not to be drawn into anything, and that’s a lot of fun for us as actors and for an audience as well.
You call it chemistry, but it’s almost the opposite of chemistry as well. These two guys couldn’t be any more different, but you can truly annoy someone to that degree if you know them as well as you two clearly know each other. I want to end landing on Carey Mulligan. How did you touch base with her? How did you get her involved? Was she your first choice?
TK: Fourth choice?
TB: Yeah. Way down the list .
TK: No, we drew up a list. We knew once we’d written the script and knew Nell would be a big part of it, then you just aim high. Why not? And she was on the top of our list, and we reached out to her, and fortunately, she was aware of our work, so without that, it’s no reply or a polite reply from an agent saying “She’s busy.” But she was aware of us enough that she read the script and watched the short film and was immediately into the idea of being in it, and well, she’s in it .
Simple as that. Guys, thank you so much and best of luck with this.
TB: Thank you.
TK: Thank you so much.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know it goes directly to support our writers and contributors.