Casting a cat in Pudsey the Dog: The Movie gave the director kittens and put Lorraine Kelly out of a job!
Our Lorraine was asked to voice feisty feline Faustus in a new film starring the 2012 Britain’s Got Talent winner.
But the moggy misbehaved so much that its first day of filming turned out to be its last. And the role was much reduced by the time Lorraine got into the recording studio.
“The cat was meant to be a major part of the film but was very naughty and got the sack,” said Pudsey’s trainer Ashleigh Butler. “In one scene it jumped out of the window and ran off.
“That wasn’t meant to happen but they kept that in the film to explain her disappearance. We had to change the script to accommodate it.”
Lorraine is philosophical about her Hollywood dreams being nipped in the bud by a single-minded Siamese.
“It’s hilarious to think I could have had a starring role if the cat had behaved herself,” she told The Sunday Post. “But to be honest it would then have probably been offered to Judi Dench or Joanna Lumley!”
The dancing dog who plays a streetwise stray in the family adventure is voiced by Britain’s Got Talent judge David Walliams. He comes to the rescue of three young children and their mum (played by Jessica Hynes) when he discovers a property developer’s devious plan to level their new cottage in the country to build a supermarket. John Sessions plays the scheming landowner, with Olivia Colman, Amanda Holden and Peter Serafinowicz voicing various farm animals.
Trainer Ashleigh is not seen on screen, although she does have a line as Daisy the Cow, and had to be just off camera throughout to instruct Pudsey what to do via sign language.
“Of all the things we’ve been asked to do since winning Britain’s Got Talent two years ago, seeing my pet dog in his own movie is definitely the craziest,” said the Northamptonshire-based 19-year-old.
“I only filled in my application form the night before the deadline, so it was a very last-minute thing, and even my nan, who is my biggest fan, said to me before we went on ‘Ashleigh, you know a dog is never going to win’.”
Being on the bill at the Royal Variety Performance is the highlight of any entertainer’s year but for Pudsey it meant one thing even better than being introduced to the Queen getting his teeth into a pork pie.
“If we’re doing a really big performance he gets a pork pie,” says Ashleigh, who rewards him with treats for his tricks followed by a session on the treadmill. “I can’t have him getting fat.”
Ashleigh wasn’t taken with Walliams’ voice for Pudsey the first time she heard it so the comedy actor admits he altered it to sound less “like a criminal”.
“I went on Alan Carr’s show when it was announced I was going to be the voice of Pudsey, I did the voice and Ashleigh saw it and didn’t like it,” recalls dog-loving David, who also appeared with Pudsey in his BBC1 Christmas drama Mr Stink.
“So I made him sound more eager. I think it works better because in the film Pudsey is like a child. He’s part of the family.”
Pudsey The Dog: The Movie is at cinemas in Scotland from tomorrow and Friday in the rest of the UK.
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