Thomas William Basden (born 30 November 1980) is an English actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for co-creating and starring in ''

Plebs In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

'', which won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

award for Best Scripted Comedy in 2014. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2007

Edinburgh Comedy Awards The Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Establ ...

and is a member of the sketch group Cowards.

Education

Tom Basden was born in

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

, Greater London. He was educated at

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The s ...

, a

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for boys in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

in South-West London, where he was in the same year as fellow actors Khalid Abdalla and Ben Barnes; followed by

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

. He was vice-president of

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

and his contemporaries included Stefan Golaszewski, Sarah Solemani,

Tim Key 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 (comedy troupe), Cowards, and plays Alan Pa ...

(who pretended to be studying for a Ph.D at Cambridge to be part of a Footlights production) and

Dan Stevens Daniel Jonathan Stevens (born 10 October 1982) is an English actor. He first drew international attention for his role as Matthew Crawley in the ITV period drama series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2012). He also starred as David in the thriller ...

Career

Performance

Basden's one-man show at the 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, ''Tom Basden Won't Say Anything'', won the " if.comedy award" for Best Newcomer. He starred with

in the 2007 short film '' The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island'', which won the

UK Film Council The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...

Kodak Award for Best British Short Film. The short was expanded into a feature film, '' The Ballad of Wallis Island'', produced by Baby Cow. In 2008 Basden appeared as the resident musician for the second series of the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

comedy show '' Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better'', replacing

Tim Minchin Timothy David Minchin Order of Australia#Levels of membership, AM (born 7 October 1975) is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, and songwriter. Minchin has released six CDs, five DVDs, and live comedy shows that he ...

. He was a guest panellist on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

comedy show ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first host ...

'' in November 2009. Since 2012 he has appeared as Tim Key's musical sidekick in the Radio 4 comedy ''Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme''. Since 2013, Basden has co-written and appeared in the ITV ancient-Rome sitcom ''

''. He played a lead role the 2013 BBC Two comedy thriller ''

The Wrong Mans ''The Wrong Mans'' is a British comedy drama television series, produced by BBC Television and Hulu. It premiered on BBC Two on 24 September 2013 and in the United States on 11 November 2013. Considered a critical and ratings success, it was c ...

''. He co-wrote the third and fifth episodes of series one, and wrote both episodes of series two which aired the following year. He played Dan the sound engineer in the 2016 film '' David Brent: Life on the Road'', and

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

in the 2018 Royal Wedding special of ''

The Windsors ''The Windsors'' is a British sitcom and parody of the British royal family, the House of Windsor. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 in April 2016 and stars Harry Enfield, Haydn Gwynne, Hugh Skinner, Louise Ford, Richard Goulding, Tom Duran ...

''. He had a main role as Matt in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

comedy series '' After Life''. He wrote and appeared in the 2022 BBC sitcom ''Here We Go''. He starred as Mr Short in the 2022

young adult sci-fi series '' The Last Bus''.

Writing

Basden's 2010 play ''Party'', about a group of university students holding a meeting to found their own political party, was performed at the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It opened on April 20, 1927. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre cen ...

in London. Brian Logan, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', gave it a four out of a possible five stars and describing it "an idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable piece performed beautifully by a crack cast of upcoming comics", while Dominic Cavendish for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' called it "astute (and) stingingly amusing". A radio adaptation of the play produced by Julia McKenzie was broadcast on Radio 4 for three series and a Christmas special from 2010 to 2018. In addition to writing the adaptation, Basden appeared, alongside Tim Key,

Jonny Sweet Jonathan Huw Sweet (born 1985) is a British comedian and the recipient of the 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award for best newcomer. Early life Sweet was born in Nottingham and educated at the local independent school Nottingham High School. He read ...

, Anna Crilly and

Katy Wix Katy Victoria J Wix (born 28 February 1980) is a Welsh actress, writer, author and artist. Her television roles include Carole in '' Stath Lets Flats,'' Mary in ''Ghosts'', Barbara in ''Ted Lasso'', and Jules in '' Big Boys''. She has also ap ...

. His play ''Joseph K'', based on

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

's novel ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

'' and starring Tim Key, was longlisted for the

2011 Evening Standard Theatre Awards The 2011 Evening Standard Theatre Awards were announced on 20 November 2011. The shortlist was revealed on 7 November 2011 and the longlist on 19 October 2011. Winners, shortlist and longlist = winner Best Play * '' The Heretic'' by Richard B ...

Most Promising Playwright: it also received positive reviews from ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''. In 2011 he wrote ''There Is a War'', starring himself and

Phoebe Fox Phoebe Fox (born 16 April 1987) is an English actress, who was nominated for Olivier and Evening Standard awards for work in theatre. She has appeared in the ''Black Mirror'' episode " The Entire History of You" (2011), '' The Woman in Black: An ...

, for the National Theatre's ''Double Feature''. Basden co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom '' Fresh Meat'', which earned him a nomination for the 2012 BAFTA Craft Awards Break-Through Talent Award.

Works

Television

Film

Short film

Awards

References

External links

Professional website of Tom BadsenOfficial Cowards website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Basden, Tom 1980 births Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge People educated at King's College School, London Living people English comedy writers English male comedians English male television actors English male stage actors 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians Actors from the London Borough of Sutton Comedians from the London Borough of Sutton Male actors from London