Toast of London

Toast of London
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Arthur Mathews Matt Berry
Directed by	Michael Cumming
Starring	Matt Berry Robert Bathurst Doon Mackichan Harry Peacock
Opening theme	"Take My Hand" by Matt Berry
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	19 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer	Kate Daughton
Running time	23 minutes
Production company	Objective Media Group
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	20 October 2013 (2013-10-20) – present

Toast of London is a British television sitcom set in London. It was created by Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry and stars Berry as Steven Toast, an eccentric, middle-aged actor with a chequered past who spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it. Three seasons were broadcast on Channel 4, all directed by Michael Cumming. Series 2 and 3 were shot at West London Film Studios. In the United States, Toast of London is available on IFC and Netflix.

In November 2017, after reports of a fourth series, Berry clarified that it will return "in some form at some point", but nothing was currently being written. Mathews later said that they have an idea for Toast in America, but that no deadline was set. In December 2017, Channel 4 officially renewed the series for another series.

Cast and characters

Main

• Matt Berry as Steven Gonville Toast, the central character of the series. A bumbling, self-important actor, an unsuccessful ladies' man and often the bearer of bad fortune. Toast considers himself a success despite his obviously failing career.
  • Berry also portrays a younger version of Steven's father, Colonel Gonville Toast, in the series 3 episode "Beauty Calls".
• Doon Mackichan as Jane Plough (which she pronounces "pluff" /plʌf/), Toast's unhelpful agent. Prim and posh, she sees herself as superior to Toast, despite her failure to provide him with decent work. She was played by Fiona Mollison in the pilot.
• Robert Bathurst as Ed Howzer-Black, Toast's landlord and an idle retired actor.
  • Bathurst also portrays Ed's father, Rupert Howzer-Black, in the series 3 episode "Beauty Calls".
• Harry Peacock as Ray "Bloody" Purchase, Toast's fellow actor and rival, and a virulent homophobe. The two hate each other with a vengeance and are constantly in competition. While Purchase often seems to have the upper hand, Toast is still sometimes able to come out on top.
  • Peacock also portrays Ray's albino twin brother, Bill Purchase, in the series 3 episode "Man of Sex".
• Tim Downie as Danny Bear, a studio sound engineer and stereotypical hipster who regularly hires Toast for voiceover work in a London studio.
• Shazad Latif as Clem Fandango, another hipster who is doing work experience in the recording studio. Clem routinely says to Toast "Hello Steven, this is Clem Fandango, can you hear me?" to which Toast is forced to reply with some variation of "Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango."
• Tracy-Ann Oberman as Mrs Purchase, the wife of Ray Purchase and a prostitute who is having an affair with Toast. Despite being a prostitute, the only person she ever charges for sex is her husband.

Recurring

• Adrian Lukis as Colonel Blair Toast, Steven's eccentric older brother. An army veteran, he lost his hand in the Falklands War and now uses a stuffed rubber glove as a replacement.
• Amanda Donohoe as Ellen, Toast's abusive and volatile ex-wife. Despite her poor treatment of him, Toast continues to have feelings for her.
• Alan Ford as Alan, who is a hypnotist and a homeopath. Ford also appeared as a taxi driver called "Mick Carriage"
• Peter Davison plays a fictionalised version of himself in several episodes.
• Morgana Robinson makes one appearance in each of the three series, each time as a different character. She portrays Jemima Gina in "Addictive Personality", Lorna Wynde in "Fool in Love", and Emma in "Beauty Calls".
• Geoffrey McGivern appears as three separate one-off characters, all of whom were temperamental directors working with Toast. He portrays Cliff Promise in "The Unspeakable Play", Acker Herron in "Afternoon Tea", and Norris Flipjack in "Desperate Measures".

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
Pilot	1		20 August 2012 (2012-08-20)
1	6		20 October 2013 (2013-10-20)	24 November 2013 (2013-11-24)
2	6		3 November 2014 (2014-11-03)	8 December 2014 (2014-12-08)
3	6		18 November 2015 (2015-11-18)	23 December 2015 (2015-12-23)

Pilot episode (2012)

Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
"The Unspeakable Play"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	20 August 2012 (2012-08-20)
Toast has recently divorced. He is living with his middle-aged friend Ed and Ed's elderly agoraphobic mistress Goodhouse. Ed's wife lives in Swaziland. Toast is starring in a play that is so bad and controversial that no-one says its name - and protesters are outside the theatre. Toast auditions for a part in a TV drama as a gay undercover detective. The producer, Cliff, is in prison for holocaust denial, so Toast has to audition whilst visiting Cliff. Another inmate thinks Toast actually is a policeman and attacks him. Ray Purchase, a rival actor whose wife is having an affair with Toast, attacks Toast. He is a police artist and frames Toast as a flasher.

Series 1 (2013)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Addictive Personality"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	20 October 2013 (2013-10-20)
Toast is about to have sex with an attractive young woman, Jemima, at her flat. He leaves when he sees that she is wearing an ankle monitor and was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing her boyfriend. She stalks him. Toast meets attractive young journalist Susan. She throws a supermarket trolley in a canal, then tells him that she is a recovering alcoholic. When she takes him to her flat, he sees that she is an extreme hoarder. Jemima turns up at Susan's flat and is arrested by the police. Susan rejects Toast for being weird. Kikini, the daughter of the Nigerian ambassador has been the victim of unscrupulous plastic surgery by Ray Purchase which has made her look like Bruce Forsyth, so Ed invites her to stay at the flat to recuperate. Toast is informed that he will be the recipient of an acting award, which he is told by his agent Jane Plough is for Best Actor. She later tells him that the award is for Worst Actor. He sends Kikini to accept the award on his behalf.
2	2	"Afternoon Tea"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	27 October 2013 (2013-10-27)
Toast gets a part in a new play but tries to get out of it when he finds out about the director's disturbing past. The director is displeased with Toast's attitude, so he and Ray Purchase confronts Toast. In the meantime, while chasing a romantic endeavor, Toast runs into an old acting classmate. But all goes to hell when Toast finds out that he has been set up, unknowingly to both, to be as part of her documentary.
3	3	"Vanity Project"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	3 November 2013 (2013-11-03)
Toast is caught in the middle of an acrimonious and expensive divorce. In need of money, he agrees to act in a vanity film about Prince Philip.
4	4	"Submission"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	10 November 2013 (2013-11-10)
After helping the Royal Navy on a recent project, Toast is invited to the launch of their new nuclear submarine, the "Penetrator".
5	5	"The End"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	17 November 2013 (2013-11-17)
Toast is tired of doing crummy voiceovers and appearing every night in his bad play. With the help of a new agent, Brooke Hooberman, he tries his hand at a new career: an author of erotic literature.
6	6	"Bonus Ball"	Michael Cumming	Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews	24 November 2013 (2013-11-24)
After losing £20,000 to Andrew Lloyd Webber in a celebrity poker game, Toast finds himself hunted by musical superstar and part-time theatre-land enforcer Michael Ball.

Series 2 (2014)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
7	1	"Match Fit"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	3 November 2014 (2014-11-03)
Toast accepts Ed's invitation to the Celebrities and Prostitutes Blow Football Tournament and becomes determined to win. He pays a prostitute, Wendy Nook, to be his partner. They lose the final against Ray Purchase and his wife. However, the Purchases are disqualified because Mrs Purchase is not a genuine prostitute, so Toast and Wendy win. Toast's prize is to have unprotected sex with Mrs Purchase whilst Ray watches.
8	2	"Desperate Measures"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	10 November 2014 (2014-11-10)
After Ray Purchase snitches on him to the 'Tax People', Toast receives a massive tax bill, and is forced to take on some unappealing jobs to pay off the debt.
9	3	"The Moosetrap"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	17 November 2014 (2014-11-17)
A return to the West End stage in the legendary 'whodunnit' play The Moose Trap is seriously jeopardised when Toast reveals the killer's identity in a radio interview.
10	4	"High Winds Actor"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	24 November 2014 (2014-11-24)
After the tragic death of his friend Axel Jacklin, Britain's finest exponent of acting in high winds, Toast finds himself in demand for dramatic roles.
11	5	"Buried Alive!"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	1 December 2014 (2014-12-01)
Toast is very excited to land a major role in a big movie, but when his co-star, Max Gland, has an accident on set, it has terrifying consequences for Toast's role.
12	6	"Fool in Love"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	8 December 2014 (2014-12-08)
An old heartbreaker flame of Toast's, Lorna Wynde, turns up in London, but is she still in love with him, or is she trying to make her husband, Josh Homme, jealous?

Series 3 (2015)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
13	1	"Over the Moon"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	18 November 2015 (2015-11-18)
A tipsy Toast appears on the chat show Lorraine and tells a story from his past that could bring down the U.S. government. Later, he suffers stage fright ahead of his starring role in Macbeth.
14	2	"Beauty Calls"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	25 November 2015 (2015-11-25)
Ed is dating former beauty queen Penvelope - and Toast hooks up with her friend Clancy Moped. However, their romances are jeopardized when the guys are invited to judge a beauty contest.
15	3	"Hamm on Toast"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	2 December 2015 (2015-12-02)
Toast experiences the charisma of Mad Men star Jon Hamm. Toast's father dies.
16	4	"Bob a Job"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	9 December 2015 (2015-12-09)
Toast and Purchase perform the "sand dance" at Royal Variety Performance, hosted by Bob Monkhouse. Toast pulls a trap door, killing Monkhouse. Danny has sex reassignment surgery.
17	5	"Man of Sex"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	16 December 2015 (2015-12-16)
When appearing in a play called "Man of Sex", Toast's co star is taken to rehab. Replacing him is the albino twin brother of Ray Purchase, Bill Purchase. Toast collapses whilst performing on stage, and is taken to hospital.
18	6	"Global Warming"	Michael Cumming	Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry	23 December 2015 (2015-12-23)
Toast is set to appear in a production of Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre. He thinks that he will gain recognition by acting there, but is ridiculed because he will be in a cast consisting mostly of dogs. He burns down the theatre with a pipe before the performance is due to take place.

Music and songs

The theme music, "Take My Hand" was composed by Matt Berry and was released on the album Witchazel. Each episode also features a novelty song sung by Berry's character Toast, and others. The songs are sometimes sung partly to the Fourth Wall.

Book

In 2015, Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews published Toast on Toast: Cautionary tales and candid advice, a spoof autobiography of Steven Toast. It was also released as an audio book read by Matt Berry.

External links

• Toast of London on Channel 4
• Toast of London at British Comedy Guide
• Toast of London at IMDb