Tim Key reveals second cancer scare

Comic has tumour removed and undergoes immunotherapy

Tim Key has revealed that he's undergoing immunotherapy after a second cancer scare.

The comic had a malignant melanoma cut out of his leg in 2018 after a sharp-eyed doctor in one of his audiences spotted a legion.

But he has now disclosed that he had a second tumour removed in February last year after finding a lump on his hip. The operation coincided with him performing his stand-up show referencing the original cancer and the premiere of his film The Ballad of Wallis Island.

Explaining that he has undergone immunotherapy every three weeks since March 2025, Key told Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan on his RTÉ chat show: 'So I don't have cancer.

'I'm doing the treatment for that and I've been very fortunate. When it happened, it was all completely and utterly tangled with the release of our film.

‘So I got diagnosed, I think, in the January, and then that night, I did my [Loganberry] show, which was… talking about when I got diagnosed with cancer.

'I did that show for a week, then went to Sundance for the film festival and then we opened the film.'

Describing getting 'emotional' at the festival in Utah, Key recalled that there was 'a sort of numbness about it, because there's just … it sort of feels impossible that these two things are happening at the same time.

'It's the altitude, you know, it's really in the mountains, and there was a lot going on. And I was so overwhelmed that we made our film and that it was going well. So [that] probably would have done it on its own. [But] yeah, there was one interview where I just slightly lost it.'

Key, who won a Chortle Award earlier this month for his most recent book, L.A. Baby!, told Tiernan that having such diametrically opposed feelings on consecutive weekends inspired him creatively while he was in hospital.

'I was thinking when I was inside there, there's definitely a book [in this]… it was so interesting, experiencing both of those things.'

The Tommy Tiernan Show's format relies on the comedian not knowing his guests in advance and thus not researching or preparing questions for them.

Although he obviously recognised Key, Tiernan appeared only dimly aware of his health issues, beginning the interview by asking 'were you ill recently? Did you have a bad something-or-other?’

Later in the chat, he acknowledged that the enquiry had made Key 'uncomfortable'.

However, it was also this admission that prompted the Alan Partridge star to share his second diagnosis, after mentioning that the original cancer had been followed by four years of MRI scans and CT scans every three months, 'just to check I was OK.

'Then I got the all-clear, hugged it out with my doctor, and then a year later, which is last December, I found another lump in my hip … I had all the tests and all of that stuff, and then got diagnosed again with cancer … I've never talked about it in public. And so it did feel like a big place to start!'

Key confessed that the story he'd been telling about his original cancer hadn't quite been accurate. A doctor had been in his audience and sent his agent an email the next day, 'saying "love the show", but he should go and see his GP as soon as possible'.

Except that when Key returned to the email after his recovery, 'the only detail I got wrong is she hadn't said she's enjoyed the show.'

Elsewhere, he said that he had 'lost' a live show called The Wars, developed after he discovered the first cancer.

'Because I was in the wars,’ he explained. 'I was kind of merrily going along, doing it as a work-in-progress and doing it a lot in London, just hammering away at it. And it was getting better and better.

'I really did like it by the end. But then I just thought, "I don't know whether I can do this at this precise moment". And then lockdown [for the coronavirus pandemic was imposed]'

Some material from The Wars survives in Loganberry, which Key resumes touring around the UK next month.

Here he talks to Tiernan about getting the call to play Alan Partridge’s sidekick.