AN ILL WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Mole, Ratty and Mr Toad in a polluted, litter-strewn dystopia? It’s a stark eco-warning voiced by David Attenborough of...

THE Wind in the Willows has been updated in a short film reflecting the impact our rubbish has on the environment.

The two-minute cinema trailer — narrated by stars including Sir David Attenborough, Stephen Fry, Catherine Tate and Alison Steadman — shows how the lives of Badger, Ratty, Mole and Mr Toad are disrupted when roads, pollution, litter and intensive agriculture destroy their habitats.

In one scene, Mr Toad looks over a landscape featuring fly-tipped furniture, tyres and other junk. In another, he hangs a picture of a puffin entangled in plastic on the wall in Toad Hall and says: ‘Farewell old friend’.

The film, based on the Kenneth Grahame children’s novel, has been released by The Wildlife Trusts to highlight environmental damage and to call on politicians to do more to protect our surroundings.

The charity said only 20 per cent of rivers are considered healthy. Ratty the water vole is the UK’s most rapidly declining mammal and has already been lost from 94 per cent of places where he was once prevalent. Mr Toad is also suffering: numbers have fallen by 70 per cent in the past 30 years.

Sir David, President Emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts, said: ‘We’ve damaged our rivers, built too many roads and lost too many ponds and meadows. We know which wild places we should be protecting but we need ambitious new laws to ensure we do this. Join us to put nature into recovery.’

Actor Fry, President of the Great Fen Wildlife Trust, who plays Badger, said: ‘We all need to rise up and call for a wilder future — otherwise it’ll be too late to save Toad, Ratty and all residents of the riverbank and beyond.’

The film will be screened at 500 cinemas across the UK from tomorrow as well as on social media.

Green and pleasant land: The film opens with Ratty’s boat gently bobbing on a river in an idyllic scene before man spoils the countryside 1

River of broken dreams: Ratty’s idyllic trip has taken a turn for the worse as he now finds his boat hemmed in on all sides by rubbish clogging the waterway 5

Polluting pipes: As if the rubbish wasn’t enough, now industrial waste pours into the river 8

Highway horror: Toad, left, comes off his bike in roadworks Sprawling: He is sent flying into piles of discarded rubbish In a daze: He picks himself up to survey a landscape of fly-tipped furniture and junk 3 4

Tormented: Badger, voiced by Stephen Fry, is furious as his tree-stump home is ripped apart for a flyover 6

And finally ... Mole, Badger, Ratty and Mr Toad set off on mission to change the environment 10

Hell hole: Mole’s burrowing comes to a standstill as he hits the new road 7

Old friend: Mr Toad hangs a portrait of a plastic-choked puffin 9