Broadcast Monday 30th April 2007.
Apologies for the muted section to remove some forbidden music. Here's the missing voiceover and dialogue.
In their final years, the Grahams wandered the continent. Elspeth seems to have made a recovery from the weak nerves which affected her until Mouse's death, and she took control of the husband who appeared a broken man.
“Kenneth had 10 years left to live and it was a process of simply going through the motions. They sat on the porch and drank port out of paper cups.”
The Grahams returned to Pangbourne for his last years and lived in a house by the banks of the Thames, where Kenneth could sit and watch the river.
“I feel strangely tired, Rat. As if I'd been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over. And yet nothing particular has happened.”
“It's lucky we've got the stream with us to take us home. And hark to the wind playing in the weeds.”
At the age of 73, Kenneth Graham died in his sleep and is buried beside his son.
“I think it was unutterably tragic. I think this was a man who would much rather have been loved by a woman and had children and been taught how to be loving to them than have ever written a single word.”
“Kenny's life was not a total tragedy, and he had that satisfaction of knowing that he'd done something absolutely notable. He saw it become popular with children and with adults all over the world, and one can still read The Wind in the Willows now, as an adult, and wonder at it.”