'Get out of your own head – that's the lesson'

Ella Walker speaks to the cast and director of witty Wales-filmed The Ballad of Wallis Island

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AT FIRST, you may think you're settling down to a classic romcom with The Ballad of Wallis Island. Filmed on a beautiful island with crashing waves and stupendous sunsets, there's Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby, She Said) wandering around in ethereal outfits and lots of woollens, while Tom Basden (Here We Go) smoulders and stomps about twanging a guitar.

But then you have comedian Tim Key (Inside No. 9) popping up as the awkward, grieving Charles, a lottery winner who's persuaded Basden’s character Herb - a folk singer in need of funds - to perform a gig, intriguingly, for fewer than 100 people, and a suitcase full of cash.

He enlists Nell Mortimer (Mulligan), the other half of the folk duo McGwyer Mortimer that Herb left to pursue a solo career. It turns out Charles has got the band back together.

“It's quite an intense, extreme example of hoodwinking some people to play a private gig without giving the full information,” says Key, 48, who co-wrote the film's screenplay with Basden.

“You are worried for Herb slightly, because my guy is a maniac who's just taken him over to his island under false pretences. But after that, you realise he comes from a good place.

“He really, really loves these two people, and he loves them for a very specific, quite sweet reason. I mean, it’s probably not a blueprint people should follow to get others to bend to their will. But, by the end of the film, you feel for him, and you think he's acting at least with his heart.”