Recently broadcast on BBC One and based on the bestselling memoir of English food journalist and broadcaster Nigel Slater, biopic Toast comes to DVD later this month.
This bittersweet story of Slater’s childhood stars Freddie Highmore, Ken Stottm Victoria Hamilton and Helena Bonham Carter.
With a mother (Hamilton) who has an aversion to cooking and chronic asthma and a father (Stott) who worries that there is something “wrong” with his son, Nigel (Highmore) finds it difficult to connect with family life.
When his mother dies he and his father are heartbroken and the situation worsens for Nigel when the new cleaner, Mrs Potter (Bonham Carter) arrives on the scene.
Mrs Potter’s curves, charms and lemon meringue pies quickly bewitch his father and much to Nigel’s horror, the three of them move from Wolverhampton, out to the countryside.
The one silver lining in the cloud of a new school is Domestic Science class, where Nigel can finally shine and cooking soon becomes the key weapon in the battle for Dad’s affections. Ironically, the main casualty of this culinary battle is Nigel’s father, as his waistline grows and grows as Mrs Potter’s cooking becomes obsessive.
