Trivia / The Wind in the Willows

• Adaptation Overdosed: There's inevitably a lot of adaptations of the novel. Curiously though a large surge of them were made within the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.
• Development Hell: In 2003, Guillermo del Toro was working on an adaptation for Disney that would have mixed live action with CG animation.
  It was a beautiful book, and then I went to meet with the executives and they said, "Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, "radical dude" things?" and that's when I said, "It's been a pleasure...'"
• Playing Against Type: Well, writing against type. In 1990 playwright Alan Bennett adapted the book as play for the National Theatre; Bennett's plays are almost always aimed at adults.
• Reality Subtext: The weasels taking over Toad Hall reflects the great social upheaval of the Edwardian Era, where the old aristocracy was waning fast, and there was great social mobility of the lower classes.
• Role Reprise: Richard Briers played Rat no less than three times in three different different productions. First for Alan Bennett's dramatization for the National Theatre, then in the BBC Radio 4 version of the play, and finally in Martin Gates' trilogy of animated specials.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The Rankin/Bass adaptation was completed in 1985, but didn't debut on ABC until 1987.
• Write Who You Know:
  • It's speculated that Grahame's son Alastair — a very spoiled, sheltered child — was the inspiration for Mr. Toad. Colonel Francis Cecil Ricardo, the first owner of a car in Cookham in Berkshire, where Grahame wrote the books is also thought to have been an influence. Other suggestions include Walter Cunliffe, 1st Baron Cunliffe.
  • Simon Winchester suggested that Ratty was based on Frederick Furnivall, a keen oarsman and acquaintance of Grahame. However, Grahame himself said that he was inspired by his good friend, the writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Grahame wrote this in a signed copy he gave to Quiller-Couch's daughter, Foy Felicia.
• Written for My Kids: The book originated as stories Grahame told his son.

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