Wind in the Willows - Original Feature Film Soundtrack

The Wind in the Willows — Original Soundtrack

Keith Hopwood & Malcolm Rowe

This is the original soundtrack album to Cosgrove Hall's beloved 1983 stop-motion feature film adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, made for Thames Television and first broadcast on ITV on 27 December 1983. The film went on to win both a BAFTA and an International Emmy, and its exquisitely detailed puppet animation — paired with a stellar voice cast — has made it a enduring favourite ever since.

The soundtrack features the voices of Ian Carmichael as Ratty, Sir Michael Hordern as Badger, David Jason as Toad, and Richard Pearson as Mole, with Robin Holmes as the storyteller guiding listeners through Mole's escape from his riverbank burrow, the perils of the Wild Wood, and Toad's reckless love affair with the open road, right through to the climactic battle to reclaim Toad Hall. The score was written by Keith Hopwood (formerly of Herman's Hermits) and Malcolm Rowe, arranged and conducted by Brian Ibbetson with the Hallé Orchestra, and the title theme is sung by folk stalwart Ralph McTell.

Thirteen tracks capture the full sweep of the story, from the gentle "On the River" and comic "Duck's Ditty" through to "The Battle" and the closing reprise of "The Wind in the Willows" theme — a warm, orchestral score that stands on its own as a piece of classic British children's television music, decades before Cosgrove Hall's Emmy-winning film spawned the long-running ITV series that followed it.