The Wind in the Willows (2006 film) The Wind in the Willows (2006 film) The Wind in the Willows is a 2006 live-action television adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic novel "The Wind in the Willows". It was a joint production of the BBC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and starred Matt Lucas (Mr. Toad), Bob Hoskins (Badger), Mark Gatiss (Ratty), and Lee Ingleby (Mole), with a cameo appearance from Michael Murphy as the Judge. Rachel Talalay directed. It debuted in Canada on CBC Television on 18 December 2006 in the United Kingdom on BBC1 on 1 January 2007, in the U.S. on PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" on 8
Night of the Big Wind at hand. The Old-Age Pensions Act 1908 introduced pensions for over-70s, but many Irish Catholics prior to the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act, 1863 had no birth registration. One of the questions used to establish proof of age was whether the applicant remembered the Night of the Big Wind. A popular story holds that the storm inspired the Director of Armagh Observatory, the Reverend Romney Robinson, to develop the cup-anemometer, which remains the commonly used wind measuring device today. Irish language poems about the event include "Oíche na Gaoithe Móire" by Micheál de Búrc (c.1800 – 1881) and