The Wind in the Willows
Matt Lucas plays Toad
Matt Lucas describes playing Toad in The Wind in the Willows as a prize role – even though it meant being dressed in green with a false belly and stick-on warts.
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"Toad is a wonderful iconic character, very proud and arrogant but lovable. He's a dandy and a wastrel and I'm very grateful to be doing it. It really is a prize role even though I feel a real responsibility as I am bringing to life characters that everyone grew up with.
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"I vividly remember the wonderful stop frame animation production by Cosgrove Hall. So when Gub Neal approached me about playing Toad in a script written by Lee Hall it was a bit of a no-brainer really. I said ‘you'd better let me do it'.
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"I didn't know at that stage who else they had attached to it, but to be honest I wanted the role so much, it wouldn't have mattered. When I eventually found out who the rest of the cast were, it was the icing on the cake."
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Larger than life Mr Toad loves adventure and new ideas, and Matt found it easy to relate to him.
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"He is a fanatic – he loves boats, planes, horses, whatever. He pounces on something and evangelises it, then gets bored in a few days and moves on to the next thing. I can get like that too. I was so pro-England in the World Cup and then, as soon as we lost, I lost interest also.
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"To some extent I can identify with Toad. He is a buffoon and he is pompous, but he's also affectionate. I also have the shape of Toad with my own little belly, and then another one added by the costume department!
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"It's not great in terms of personal vanity, but then I have played a watermelon with Vic and Bob, and been in the romper suit in Shooting Stars, so after that you don't have an ego or vanity. Costume is sometimes cumbersome, but always worth it."
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Matt enjoyed the process of being transformed into Toad.
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"I have green marks on my head and transfers for tattoos which I have to get done every day. It's an hour in make-up but it's better than doing Bubbles in Little Britain, which took four hours.
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"I have strange eye sockets that make me look quite different with enlarged eyebrows and to get inside the skin of Toad I use gestures that are toad-like. I did a lot of work with Marcello from Theatre de Complicite and we explored the movements of animals and the noises they make.
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"In the script, Toad leaps over a fence and those are the moments when you can embody the animal in the character. I did look at a lot of toads and they don't move that much, whereas Mr Toad is terribly excitable and moves a lot. So I try to make the eyes go big, and keep the neck stiff."
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Adds Matt: "Toad also has 15 different outfits including a washerwoman costume so I get to dress up as a woman again! I also get to sing."
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Matt's experience on Little Britain helped him in other ways too. "We had a minor character in the series called Sir Bernard Chumley and I drew on some aspects of his character for Toad."
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Filming reunited Matt with Mark Gatiss, who plays Ratty.
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"Mark and I have been friends for years, he was the script editor on the first series of Little Britain. I hadn't worked with Lee Ingleby before, but we all have the same sense of humour and it's been a riot on set.
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"Then Bob Hoskins came along and as I grew up watching The Long Good Friday and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? it's a great privilege to work with him. The chemistry between us is good and I hope that spills over to the screen."
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Appearing in a drama with a script written by someone else was a new experience for Matt.
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"Most of the work that I do with David Walliams we co-write so to do this was a very different process. I am used to cutting scenes but in this you have to try harder to make sure it does work."
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While he was filming in Romania, Matt's Little Britain co-star David completed his charity swim across the Channel.
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"I rang him on the day of the swim at 4am because I knew he would be up. I am so proud of him because I saw him do the nine months of training while also doing our live shows and writing the Christmas specials. The only thing I can do to match him is to eat as many crisps!"
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As well as the multi-award winning sketch show, Matt's other credits include: Casanova, Look Around You, Shaun of the Dead and The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer.
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"I could not predict the scale of our success, you just don't. I remember thinking when I was 15 or 16 'how am I going to get work?' I didn't look like a normal teenager because I lost all my body hair at the age of six. So to get into acting I thought I would start writing. I am so lucky that it has all worked out."
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