First shown: BBC1, January 1 2007 at 6.20pm -
8.00pm.
The original joyrider goes wild in the
country once more as Kenneth Grahame's
classic riverbank heroes calm the kids
and help sooth grownup hangovers in this marvellous adaption from Lee 'Billy
Elliot' Hall.
Curious Mole (Lee Ingleby), emerges blinking from his hole for his first
encounter with the river, where he meets Ratty (Mark Gatiss), who imparts
that 'there is rarely anything half as much fun as messing about on boats'.
That is, until Toad (Matt Lucas) sculls by to shatter the peace and quiet.
Toad, of course, is larger than life, and even larger than Lucas, who had to
strap on a false belly for the part. Rollicking up and down the country
byways, poop-pooping at anything in his path, Toad's fanatical obsession
with all things motorised soon runs him headlong into trouble in the form of
the authoritarian Badger, played by gruff, growling and hunchbacked Bob
Hoskins.
But incorrigible Toad, blind to his friends' exhortations, continues to make
himself a public nuisance as the scourge of the roads, before his 20-year
prison sentence, jail breakout disguised as a washerwoman, and the climactic
battle for Toad Hall with the stoats and weasels.
Filmed in Romania, the riverbank and meadows look as idyllic as the story's
original drawings, while Gatiss's brisk Ratty recalls Terry Thomas, and
Ingleby's Mole is whisker-twitching perfect. Lucas has an absolute riot -
'Why did I do it? 'Cos it was fun, awful fun!' - and, all in all, you
couldn't wish for a more comforting start to 2007.
Source: The Mail on Sunday.
Cast:
Jim Carter as Engine driver
Mark Gatiss as Rat
Bob Hoskins as Badger
Lee Ingleby as Mole
Matt Lucas as Toad
Anna Maxwell Martin as Gaoler's
daughter
Radu Andrei Micu as Chief Weasel
Michael Murphy as The Judge
Imelda Staunton as Barge Lady
(appeared as Mrs Mead in Series 3 of Little Britain)
Mary Walsh as Washerwoman
The Wind in the Willows was released
on DVD on March 26th 2007.
The film is to be shown on ABC on December 23 '07.
Matt Lucas chats about the film in
this article - published December 17 2007.
Cast: