Thoughts on casting Wormtail?

[GulPlum]

bboy_mn wrote:

> I always thought the perfect guy was the guy from the British TV 
show
> 'Are You Being Served?'. The show takes place in a London department
> story. There is one guy Mr. Humpfreys (spelling probably wrong). He
> was short, thin, squeaky voice, gap in his front teeth, white hair,
> slightly 'limp wristed', and I can just hear him whining and
> whimpering and begging for mercy. He as a really annoying high pitch
> voice, and a somewhat rat like face.

John Inman? No way. He might look a bit ratty, but he doesn't 
do "menacing", or indeed its opposte, wimpering, very well. 
Incidentally, I don't know when you last saw him, but he hasn't aged 
at all well and without makeup looks older than John Hurt in makeup 
as Ollivander...

He does a good comic wimper, but that's not what what's called for. 
Especially not in GoF! Wormtail has got to get the tone just right 
and the whole edifice of PoA or the culmination of GoF rests on his 
shoulders.

I must admit that I'm surprised nobody's mentioned my own ideal, 
especially as Rowan Atkinson was suggested a while back (I'm not keen 
on Atkinson mainly because of the voice). My nomination goes to his 
Black Adder co-star, Tony Robinson. He does a terrific 
true "menacing" and whilst he's well-known for his comic wimpering 
from Black Adder, he does it straight as well. And he has a real 
ratty face. Oh, and he's Alan Rickman's contemporary, which hepls...

He's currently best known for presenting archeology programmes on the 
BBC (for once, the "celebrity" presenter of a factual programme is 
passionate about the subject and actually knows what he's talking 
about), but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a decent acting job for a bit 
of a change. :-)

(trivia buffs: he's currently the man in charge of Equity, the 
British actors' trades union.)