Toast of London's Matt Berry reveals why he fears another revival for the wacky sitcom
Toast has been notably absent since his 2022 trip to Tinseltown.
Matt Berry has cast doubt on the possibility of another revival for his cult favourite sitcom Toast of London.
The series followed aloof actor Steven Toast (Berry) as he navigated an often surreal distortion of London's showbiz scene, including tedious voiceover gigs and frequent bust-ups with his bitter rival, Ray Purchase (Harry Peacock).
Toast of London premiered on Channel 4 in October 2013, only a month after The IT Crowd's final episode, which also starred Berry, making it a natural follow-up watch for fans of oddball humour.
Ultimately, the show bowed out after three seasons, but received a surprise second life during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it returned with a series of lockdown-era audio skits, which paved the way for a full revival as Toast of Tinseltown.
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The Hollywood-set sequel drew on Berry's connections from high-profile US work – most notably, What We Do in the Shadows – boasting roles or cameos for the likes of Rashida Jones, Larry David, Paul Rudd and Homer Simpson, among others.
Berry gave Radio Times his thoughts on resurrecting the dormant character once again, after Toast of London was shortlisted in our greatest modern British comedy poll (voting is open until Tuesday 24th March).
"The main positive of it would be that I'm about the age that Steven Toast always was, and kind of should have been," he explained. "Right from the get go, he was in his late 40s and I was in, I think, my 30s when I first started to play him.
"But there's just been crazy work things that have happened since that I didn't expect – and I'm incredibly thankful for. There just hasn't really been any time to think about that character again."
In addition to vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, which ran for six acclaimed seasons, Berry has also bagged roles in Netflix's Disenchantment, Disney's The Book of Boba Fett, Dreamworks' The Wild Robot and Prime Video's Fallout.
On Toast of London, Berry wondered aloud whether "these things should just stay in 2010 or whenever it was, because they're right for the time".
"I think it's too much of a risk," he elaborated. "If it doesn't go well, then you start to sort of ruin the work that's happened before. The last thing will be the last failure of that thing."
Berry stopped short of definitively ruling out more Toast, but claimed to be "90 per cent" convinced that it's had its day.
He concluded: "I'm not ever nostalgic about my own work, so I wouldn't ever go back to it for those reasons. I'm only ever interested in the new thing and I think Arthur [Mathews] is the same. He would only do it with me if we had a really strong idea."
Coming up, Berry has detective comedy Force & Majeure, co-starring Poker Face's Natasha Lyonne, plus more voice roles in animated Dr Seuss adaptation The Cat in the Hat and 2000AD comic book movie Rogue Trooper.
Toast of London is available to stream on NOW.
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Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
