The Wind in the Willows
Production team
Producer – Gub Neal
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Gub Neal believes his new adaptation of The Wind in the Willows is firmly rooted in the original book by Kenneth Grahame.
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"Our brief was to get back to the book and make it work as simply as possible. We didn't want to mess about with it. Lee Hall's script is a very faithful adaptation and he said he would not undertake it unless he could make it as authentic as he could. I hope we have captured the essence of it.
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"At the time it was written, it was fresh off the page. What an insight it was to write about cars and the countryside disappearing, as a result of the industrial revolution. Grahame was right on the money about that.
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"Rat doesn't want the world to change and Mole is prepared for anything. The Wild Wood is very primitive and untamed, while the real world of the Barge Lady and the Engine Driver is new Edwardian and not very nice.
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"As Kenneth Grahame himself said of it: ‘the book is for those who keep the spirit of youth alive in them – of life, sunshine, running water, woodlands, dusty roads and winter firesides.'"
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The themes of The Wind in the Willows are still strong nearly 100 years on, according to Gub.
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"It was written in 1908 but it is still quite modern. Toad's story is a very strong moral tale and children will love that. He is an endearing monster and that's what kids love. He's an addict, but he is a joy-maker, one of the great comic inventions of the 20th century. I think we all know people with Toad-like characteristics.
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"Toad is the original rock 'n' roll idol – a bit mad and excessive. When it all goes wrong, will his friends stand by him? Of course they do. Underneath what is an incredibly simple and lovable story are a complex set of characters. It's a very rich book - the writing is very layered and the characterisation is unique."
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Such strong characters enabled Gub to attract a five star cast to the production.
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"The cast all wanted to be in it straight away. It's a real joy to see Bob Hoskins being a badger and Matt Lucas being Toad. Toad is bipolar and they are a wonderful mix of opposites and contradictions."
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Adds Gub: "Matt brings all the best to Toad – he is mischievous and provocative in nature and his personality is perfect. Bob has always played curmudgeonly characters, yet at the same time endeared the audience. He's a bit The Long Good Friday, but that's right for Badger.
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"Anna Maxwell Martin came in to see us the morning after winning the BAFTA for Bleak House so that was great timing. Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter were on board and as a producer you couldn't really ask for anything more in a cast."
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Gub and his team wanted to keep the actors recognisable, rather using heavy costumes and prosthetics to transform them into their animal characters.
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"The costumes are amazing but we are anthropomorphising the characters and showing their real faces. It would be madness not to, as Kenneth Grahame invites us to see them as humans. When Lee Ingleby comes out of the tunnel for the first time, you are in no doubt that he is a mole.
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"Marcello Magni, who has previously worked with the Theatre de Complicite, worked with the actors on developing animal gestures. He has studied animal photography and footage and transferred this to the choreography to help the actors adopt their particular animal movement and gestures.
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"He's been instrumental in getting their right look, so they are equally recognisable as themselves and as the animals."
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The Wind in the Willows was shot in Bucharest and Gub was delighted with the support he received from the Romanian crew and studios.
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"Shooting in Romania was a fantastic experience. We found the most idyllic countryside in Bucharest and the perfect riverbank, which you couldn't do in the UK as the Thames is far too littered with pleasure boats. We had reeds, dragonflies and other wildlife, plus the continental weather. We have been able to bathe our locations in a glorious sunshine.
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"Our key production team from the UK and Canada is very talented and experienced but the local crew is impressive too. They built a car for Toad in three weeks – a silver Rolls Royce chassis with rolling gears. They work around the clock and are incredibly enthusiastic. But it is still a quintessentially English story with an English cast."
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Gub thinks the film will be ideal family viewing for Christmas. "The Wind in the Willows is the perfect story, with carol singers and snow, ideal for the festive season.
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The adaptation is a first for television in terms of scale and ambition, with all its effects, and the work involved to get the production values so high has been immense.
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"It's everyone's favourite children's classic and I desperately hope we will not let people down."
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Gub's earlier credits include: Cracker; Hillsborough; Prime Suspect; No Direction 91Èȱ¬: Bob Dylan; Reversals; Boudica; Trust; Far From the Madding Crowd; Moll Flanders and The Grand.
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Director – Rachel Talalay
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Rachel Talalay describes working on The Wind in the Willows as the experience of a lifetime.
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"It's a wonderful seminal piece, great to do a children's film and it's a huge deal for me to do a Lee Hall script. It's been challenging, ambitious and hugely satisfying. To be offered it was the experience of a lifetime and I was determined to pull it off."
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Rachel uprooted her family from Vancouver to England and then Romania for the duration of the project.
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"I called my husband and said ‘we are going out of town'. My family came with me when I prepped it in London and then moved to Romania, but it worked out well. I have two girls, aged 6 and 11, and we got a tutor for them. It's been a cultural education too.
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"My kids now think I have street cred – my oldest one watched the rushes with me and they ran about in wardrobe and the art department and got to know the actors, so my stock is high with them at the moment!"
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American-born Rachel was selected as director partly for her experience with visual effects.
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"I worked on The Borrowers for Working Title Television which was full of effects, but my first British project was two episodes of Band of Gold for Gub Neal – a real experience working in Manchester.
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"I have a strong English background because my mother was from Cambridge and she decided we should all read the classics. I am pleased that I have somehow managed to break the barrier and work on English productions, even though I live in Canada."
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Deciding how the cast of acclaimed actors should portray the animal characters in The Wind in the Willows was a major decision for Rachel and the team.
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"I didn't want the actors turning out like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We had to decide how much to make them like real animals. It was a real debate how much we could get away with, then we decided on an impression of animals, partial make-up with a few warts. The kids saw the whole process and they told me when the animals looked too scary.
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"It's great to work with British comedians and an actor as experienced and revered as Bob Hoskins. Matt was nervous about playing a straight role with lots of dialogue and I was nervous too, especially about working with Bob. I am very open, and I told him it was scary for me and he came over and gave me a great big bear hug!
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"I am a huge fan of Imelda's and I have to say she has never disappointed me, which is wonderful. It's hard being the director of such a cast sometimes. With all their experience and awards put together, there you are having to tell them what to do.
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"Matt is used to working on his own but he kept checking with me whether he should do certain things. I told him that the more he improvised and added gags, the better it would be.
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"We talked about the textures of Toad. He goes from high to low. Matt has great rhythm and is a larger than life character but he is so smart and savvy that he catches on straight away and is a step ahead of you."
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Adds Rachel: "There has definitely been a chemical reaction when the cast all get together. I set up the camera and then the crew do the blocking and while we are doing that, you can see the four of them planning on what else they can build on. By the time you come back to the camera they have another idea and it's great to bounce off each other."
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The technical aspect of the production had many challenges for Rachel.
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"We have big sets and sometimes it's been slow to shoot but the opportunities in Romania and the technicians are tremendous, and they ease the frustration.
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"The biggest challenge for me was the weasels' battle and it was our most expensive couple of days. Toad also has special effects which take place in a montage in his head. And he has to drive the car into a tree and into the river. They are good stunts but they are challenging to pull off."
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Rachel's other credits include Ally McBeal; The Dead Zone; Touching Evil; Cold Case; Without a Trace and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).
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Production Designer – Jon Henson
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Production designer Jon Henson wanted to create a faithful adaptation of The Wind in the Willows while also bringing a new look to the popular story.
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"Gub Neal, the producer, wanted the film to be organic but still hang on to the essence of the book. The first ideas were to take it back to nature as I hated the idea of chintzy Edwardian sets with teapots. But we didn't want to go too rustic, so we stripped it down and brought back some of the original themes.
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"I introduced Gub to the original drawings by Arthur Rackham. I think they are rougher and have a bit more texture than some of the other illustrations. For me, the detail is always important – the texture and colour makes or breaks a set."
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One way to make the film different is the introduction of a fantasy montage for Mr Toad.
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"We invented a fantasy sequence so there's not too much footage of driving. Toad goes into his own mind and it's based on a 1920s montage, black and white footage of racing cars in front of his eyes. Suddenly he sees a tree coming towards him and then – too late. It's just something to get away from the conventional look.
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"We hired vintage cars from the 20s and 30s eras but we needed something that would go faster than 10 miles an hour, particularly for Mr Toad, so we built a car based on a Rolls Royce chassis."
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Jon created different habitats to reflect the environments of the four principal characters.
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"We kept Toad Hall all the different shades of green, even in his bedroom. The others have more earthy colours. Badger's house is very muddy and smells of the earth. It's a very organic set."
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Filming in Romania provided opportunities and challenges.
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"You can't get many props there and we had to ship a lot of stuff out. But you do have the luxury of being able to build something from scratch and be very specific about it, like Toad's bed.
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"Also, because the studios are massive, the scale is great. When Toad is in the dungeon the set is very high and he looks so small against it. You don't get that advantage in the UK because the studios don't have the space or height."
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Jon's credits include: The Walk, 40, Holy Cross, Macbeth and the films Pure and Beautiful People.
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Costume Designer – Vinilla Burnham
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Award-winning costume designer Vinilla Burnham enjoyed creating the look of the animal creatures in The Wind in the Willows.
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"I have designed a lot of animal costumes including Aslan the lion in the 91Èȱ¬ production of Narnia and the batsuit for Batman so I am not a conventional costume designer.
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"Although The Wind in the Willows is set in the Edwardian period, my take was that the animals' clothes came from their ancestors. I really like the costumes to be lived in and to have the personality of their character. Getting every detail right is very important, because, apart from Toad, they keep to more or less the same clothes throughout."
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Vinilla worked closely with the actors.
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"The one I found hardest was Rat but he proved to be very elegant. We also needed double clothes as he would always be getting wet. His life revolves around boats and the river and he wouldn't worry about going in the water. So I made sure he always had a water line on his shoes and his trousers.
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"For Mole, I started off taking reference quite literally from the Arthur Rackham pictures but when I met Lee Ingleby, it changed everything. His take on it was quite different and he was almost Mole as he walked in the door. He wears a moleskin shirt and a coat that would have come from his grandfather.
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"Bob Hoskins was wonderful too. Everything I put on him just moulded on to him and he became Badger immediately. He has this wonderful way of moving with his shoulders."
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Toad required several changes of costume, including a washerwoman's clothes.
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Says Vinilla: "I first met Matt Lucas when he was on tour with Little Britain. He started doing the voices and making faces and becoming Toad very early on. In the costumes we had to give him no neck so his shoulders start high up and then his neck slopes off. Everything looked good on him.
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"Matt was very open to whatever I thought was going to work. But the one costume he hated was his long johns. They have to be thick cotton to get the effect and I know they are very hot. He's been incredibly patient, though, and they look wonderful."
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Vinilla's other credits include: The Fifth Element, The Meaning of Life and Fungus the Bogeyman.
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Make-up and Hair Designer – Penny Smith
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Creating characters that are believable both as humans and animals was the challenge facing The Wind in the Willows make-up and hair designer Penny Smith.
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"Putting together the whole look was difficult because we have to touch on the animal element so the audience can grasp who these people are and who they are trying to create.
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"I looked at animal books to get a feeling of them and the cast also had a lot of input. To get that fine line between the animal and the human is tricky but I'm thrilled with the result."
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Creating the look meant long sessions in make-up for the principal cast.
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"For Toad, I have tattooed his head to resemble scales and he has warts put on his face. We have also reconstructed the eyebrows. These have to be reapplied every day. It's quite simple but it has to be the same for continuity obviously, which makes it a big job.
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"When he is the washerwoman he has rouged cheeks, red lips and it's all a bit badly applied. It's great fun."
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Badger's wig is made from human and animal hair.
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Says Penny: "Bob Hoskins has a nose shape and the badger wig and sideburns and his eyebrows are twisted up. The sideburns are flicked up to match the wig.
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"Until he put the wig on with the white centre and dark sides, Bob said he wasn't sure where he was going with the character. But as soon as it went on, together with the eyebrows and dark sideburns, he was happy.
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"Ratty is really a water rat so his hair is made of yak. It's quite wiry and has an animal feel to it. And Lee as Mole likes his look so much, including his prosthetic nose. He loves the claws – because he is restricted by them it helps him with the character."
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Penny worked with prosthetic designer Erik Gosselin.
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"Erik has made all the teeth for the animals, including Ratty, Mole, the rabbits and weasels. All the weasels have crooked teeth, moles have gummy baby teeth and the rabbits have just two in the front. They all required prosthetic dentures.
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"Erik and I also took a lot of time thinking about Toad's mouth and we tried putting a large false one on him but Matt Lucas found it constricting. Instead he makes a strange face and becomes Toad quite naturally, without the aid of prosthetics."
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Penny's other credits include: Sweeney Todd; Gunpowder Treason & Plot; The Last Detective; Shiner; Big Bad World, ; East Is East and Shooting The Past.
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