the plot

“Where Have I Been All Your Life?” is the cautionary tale of a young man called Liam whose innocent quest to track down his biological father takes a turn into a very bleak cul-de-sac - literally and metaphorically. His arrival at the quiet suburban home of a middle-aged couple unlocks a series of extra-marital revelations and unsavoury recriminations that escalate from the emotional, via the darkly comic to the plain farcical.

the cast

The film stars British Comedy Award winner James Corden ("Gavin and Stacey") and Academy Award nominee Imelda Staunton ("Harry Potter", "Vera Drake"), alongside James Cosmo ("Braveheart"), Perry Benson ("This is England") and Katy Wix ("Extras").

the people behind it

Jim Field Smith directed from a screenplay by George Kay.

It was produced by Alan Traquair for their production company, Idiotlamp. They were joined by editor Victoria Boydell and director of photography Rex Maidment BSC . This is predominantly the same team behind the award-winning short film (and runaway internet sensation) "Goodbye to the Normals".

It was commissioned as part of a new BBC Comedy Shorts scheme. The film was funded in part by the three BBC departments behind that scheme - BBC Films, BBC Comedy and BBC Film Network, with match funding from IE:Music and the production company Idiotlamp.

Idiotlamp and IE:Music had collaborated previously on"Goodbye to the Normals".

the music

The soundtrack for the film was provided by Brighton-based band "Passenger", from their album "Wicked Man's Rest". Songwriter and frontman Mike Rosenberg doesn’t look like a man with a dark side, yet the 23-year-old founder of Passenger pens unsettling songs about the human condition with an alarming eye for detail. Is there something he’s hiding? “That I have a disturbed mind, you mean?” laughs Rosenberg. “No, not at all. Even my darkest songs have a sense of humour. The worst crime you can commit in pop is taking yourself too seriously. Passenger has its downtempo moments and some our songs are quite sensitive, but they all share a certain quirkiness. In the end, it’s about storytelling – creating characters and sending them off on a journey.