I feel like I’m being stalked by Tim Key. In the last couple of months he has popped into my life as the creepy murderer in Inside No 9, then onstage in Single White Slut the day after I’d spotted him on TV in an airing of soppy romcom One Day. Then last week I saw him play a nerdy Kafkaesque office drone in The Double. And now he plays the lead (pun intended) opposite Matthew Perry in Sky Arts’ one-off The Dog Thrower, written and directed by Jon Ronson.
It is no surprise that Key is so busy. He can do everything from comically geeky to scarily sinister, sometimes at the same time. He has a face you can't take your eyes off even when a TV superstar is sharing the screen with him. And it is apt that I feel paranoid about him because one of the themes of The Dog Thrower is paranoia. Key plays Jonah, an ordinary Joe who is simply taking his dog for a walk in the park when he sees a local bloke played by former Friends star Perry tossing his pooch in the air. Dramatic and comedic consequences follow.
Perry's pet seems to like it so Key follows suit, only for society to frown on his canine-tossing actions. Despite the fact that the animals are having fun (and, of course, no animals were harmed in the filming) because Key and Perry are doing something outside the norm they are perceived as doing something evil. The story goes viral and a witch hunt ensues, backed by a lovely Belle & Sebastian soundtrack (yippee, new songs).
The Dog Thrower, part of the Playhouse Presents strand, is a distinctive, original piece of TV. Did I mention that there is no dialogue? The actors interact without speaking, but the plot makes perfect sense. Newspaper headlines and TV reports help to push the narrative forward. There is a brilliant moment when Jonah's dog looks horrified when he sees the story on the television. Don’t mention Mr Bean.
One can also see themes that crop up in Ronson’s investigative journalistic work – how conspiracy theories grow and spread, his fascination with outsiders and free-thinkers. There's a whiff of the inappropriate antics of Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm here too. I guess at a push one could also draw comparisons with the kind of moral panic where paediatricians’ houses get vandalised by vigilante paedophile hunters.
Oh, and of course, The Dog Thrower is very funny. Of course it is. It’s got Tim Key in it.
The Dog Thrower is on Sky Arts 1 at 9pm, May 1. Then, no doubt, on the usual catch-up services.
