Helena Bonham Carter will star in a BBC adaptation of Toast, the autobiography of food writer Nigel Slater.

She will play Slater’s stepmother in the 1960s-set drama based on the best-selling book. The teenage Slater will be played by Freddie Highmore, the child actor familiar from Love, Actually and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Lee Hall, the writer of Billy Elliot, has penned the script.

Toast is a bittersweet memoir told through food, with Slater reminiscing about the tastes and smells of his childhood, from Heinz sponge puddings to instant mash and Walnut Whips.

Slater’s mother died when he was nine and his father remarried Joan Potter, formerly the family cleaner. Life growing up in Wolverhampton thereafter was far from happy, and he found salvation in food. “There was nothing in my life, and cooking just completely filled the gap,” he said.

The film will be broadcast on BBC One at the end of this year. Filming begins in June in the West Midlands.

Jay Hunt, channel controller, said: “Toast is a wonderfully nostalgic drama that will be a real treat for BBC One viewers. This remarkable cast is sure to really bring Nigel Slater’s story alive.”

Toast has sold 250,000 copies and won a clutch of literary awards, including British biography of the year at the National Book Awards.

Bonham Carter recently starred in another BBC drama, playing Enid Blyton, in a performance which has earned her a Bafta nomination.

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By Celyn • May 21, 2010 • News • Comments: 0

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