Simon Farnaby

In Ghosts, Simon Farnaby plays Julian in shirt and tie and nothing below, and Lucy Williams's costume tells us who he is before he opens his mouth. He likes parts like that: small, pompous authority figures undercut for laughs, and he gives himself one in Paddington 2 as Barry the security guard, a man taking his job more seriously than the job deserves. Asked about the name, he has said only, "I just thought it was a funny name."

He began in comedy acting and writing on The Mighty Boosh, then joined the Them There collective on Horrible Histories (2009–2013) and stayed with them for Yonderland (2013–2016) and Ghosts (2019–2023). His film work started with acting roles and co-writing Mindhorn (2016) with Julian Barratt, then he became Paul King's writing partner on Paddington 2 (2017) and Wonka (2023). The Phantom of the Open (2021) sits between them, and The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) is a screenplay written alone.

The two best things he has had a hand in share a quality the others lack, and it is not kindness. Paddington 2 understands how much comedy there is in taking courtesy seriously, and Ben Whishaw's bear can be that polite because there is a stolen book, a prison and a man who wants something for him to be polite about. Ghosts keeps a nine-strong cast legible in a half-hour, with Jim Howick's Pat in his scoutmaster's uniform and Ben Willbond's Captain in battledress that has not creased in eighty years, and the ensemble have been making each other laugh for so long that the hotel plot can go nowhere and it hardly matters. In both, Farnaby is writing against something: a villain, or five other writers with their own jokes.

Without that, the sweetness has nothing to push on. By the hour mark of Wonka we were longing for one sour note, and none came, because King and Farnaby had decided Wonka was a nice young man who wanted everyone to have a bit of chocolate, and Dahl's bite is nowhere to be found. The Magic Faraway Tree has the same problem and has it worse. Blyton's books have almost no plot, children climb a tree and come home for tea, and Farnaby's answer, an ordinary modern Thompson family with phones, is sensible and leaves 110 minutes with nothing pressing on anyone. He knows how this is done; Paddington 2 proves it. Here he chose not to do it, or the books would not let him.

So the pattern is plain. Give him a stolen book and a man who wants it, or a room full of people he has been trading lines with since 2009, and he is at his best. Give him a tree with a new land at the top and he will climb it, look round, and bring everyone home for tea.