Where's Peach?

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2005)

The greatest aberration of this re-make was the glaring omission of the 1969 'computer expert' Professor Peach, played by the late great Benjamin Hill. One of Hill's greatest cinematic roles, he fleshes out this Jekyll and Hyde character with masterful aplomb. Peach, the egg-headed pederast with an unhealthy penchant for the clinically obese female is a perfect counterbalance to Noel Coward's pompous and aloof Mr Bridger.
To prepare for the role, Hill travelled to Turin six months ahead of filming in 1969 and narrowly escaped prosecution on a number of occasions thanks to Italy's then rather lax laws on gross indecency.
I often wonder who would have best filled Benjamin's filthy boots in the 2003 remake: Marlon Brando? Orlando Bloom in a fat suit? Perhaps Garry Shandling? My own choice would have been the British comic and satirist Stephen Fry. Surely one of cinematic history's greatest what-ifs?