Set the Thames on Fire

Set the Thames on Fire is a 2016 British science fiction fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Ben Charles Edwards in his directorial debut. Based on characters created by Edwards and Al Joshua. The film stars Michael Winder and Max Bennett, alongside an ensemble cast featuring Noel Fielding, Sadie Frost, Sally Phillips, David Hoyle, and Lily Loveless.

Art is a down-on-his-luck lowlife pianist, whose life has stalled in a grief filled frozen moment – shipwrecked on the lonesome shore of his own life. Sal is a cracked pinball machine; full of energy, light and fun but out of control and dangerously chaotic. Having escaped from Bedlam Psychiatric Hospital, Sal is an easy-going, sweet natured imp of the perverse and agent of trouble.

The two boys meet whilst working as the help at a vile cocktail party for the rich and corrupt. The boys make a connection, finding refuge in each other – the only shipmates on a drunken boat, tossed about on a stormy London sea. At the cocktail party, the elegant and sophisticated Colette reads the dangerously paranoid Impresario’s tarot cards, predicting the demise of the old, bloated and corrupt. This sets in motion a series of strange events that may connect together like a great unseen plan, or may simply be the random coincidences of an uncaring universe.

The boys become caught up in the cogs as they turn, like two rats caught in the machinery of Big Ben, as the cogs drags them ever nearer a terrifying climax. A confrontation between two different natures – the Impresario’s relentless "progress" of greed and brutality, and the boys’ urge for freedom, friendship and beauty. And ever present in the background is the dark and powerful Thames – representing the forces of nature, chance and instinct – but who will it back in this battle of heart and imagination versus bestial brutality?

The film entered production in May 2014 in London, England.