Slap Shot: Toby Williams gets a big weird award for Wet Fish, and voices fantasy heavy-hitters

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Friday 25th April 2025

Probably not one to watch while having your tea - particularly seafood - the latest addition to Toby Williams' lengthy resumé has gone down very well, otherwise.

He's the co-creator and leading man of Wet Fish, a spectacular effects-heavy comedy/horror short, directed by the envelope-pushing Big Red Button duo and co-starring Rachel Stubbings, which has just won a prestigious Webby Award. In the 'Weird' category, which sounds about right - this is almost certainly the BCG piece that most often mentions the term 'giant amniotic sac' (and there we go again).

A long-time live favourite with his alter-ego Dr George Ryegold, on-screen Williams has appeared in some seriously high-profile stuff: Sex Education, Paddington, High Rise, the forthcoming movie Pressure with Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser, plus some memorable ads.

But getting to make these films of his own is clearly a labour of love (do check out his previous gleeful gorefest Hack, too), as is another less visible career strand: voicing video games, including some epic characters, and noises, for mighty names like Lord Of The Rings and Warhammer.

We're fascinated to hear how that works. But first, let's deep-dive into Wet Fish.

Congrats on the Webby Award, Toby - it's quite a film.

Thank you, yes it is quite a film! And that's all down to the amazing crew and cast we were so lucky to have - and Rachel Stubbings always knocks it out the park.

The germ of the idea was simply me getting hit in the belly with a wet fish. When I was little if I ever said I was bored my mum would list things that I could do. I would pie every suggestion with a dismissive grunt until she'd get bored and suggest a slap in the belly with a wet fish. The frighteningly talented Pier van Tijn and Johnny Burns (the Big Red Button directing duo) really picked up the ball and ran with it into a dark and bizarre place.

Did certain movies inspire it?

I wouldn't say it was inspired by any films in particular but visually it certainly reminds me of the sublime Mandy; the acolytes [the film's mysterious hooded coven] definitely have The Omega Man vibes and the vomiting up of an adult human is reminiscent of the agave worm scene in Poltergeist II.

Impressive effects too - without giving too much away, how was that process, from conception to actually doing it?

The effects teams were just superb and I love giving away as much as I know (which isn't much) because people need to know how amazing these guys are! It was so cool to have so many practical effects in the film.

The stunningly talented people at Redgirl FX made a head cast of me, which was a dream come true for me as it was a staple of the behind-the-scenes of some of my favourite sci-fi and horror films. It turned out freakishly weird.

What happens to a human head cast afterwards?

After the shoot the guys at Blink Productions - who made the whole film possible - asked if I wanted it (can't believe they didn't want to keep it, personally) but I said no - we simply don't have the room in our flat. But my wife insisted, so at this very moment it's up in our loft space probably getting its face chewed off by a mouse.

Redgirl also made a giant amniotic sac - I'll say it again, giant amniotic sac. They made two of them, luckily, for me to burst out of and some feet for my prosthetic head to chuck up. The supremely talented VFX team at Rascal Studio stitched it all together and even added some fingers bulging in my throat and made it all look beautiful (I imagine all this is making anyone who hasn't seen it really want to watch it). And the lighting guys really aced the mood.

How did you get into video game voicing?

I was always into computer games. When I was little it was arcade Space Invaders and Donkey Kong and then the family Christmas present one year was an orange and brown Binatone Mk10 TV Master that had a variety of 'sports' that, as luck would have it, all only needed a square ball and a straight line to play.

The Commodore 64 was literally the game changer for me and, towards the end of its run, it even started speaking - that was too early to inspire dreams of voicing games but it began soon after.

Crikey - what did you start on?

The first game I did voices for was a pretty cool project called Martian Gothic (Fenella Fielding from Carry On Screaming! played the ship's computer! Although I never got to meet her, that's not how voiceovers work apparently).

It had Resident Evil vibes but was slower and more considered and puzzle-led. I did some silly character voices for the game-within-the-game you played to save your progress. I'd found what I wanted to do - performing without having to go on stage!

It took years and years to chip my way into the industry but it really only started working when I finally took the plunge and started stand-up comedy. Every role within the games industry is fascinating to me, from concept and design to writing to coding to producing and promoting - all of it - and I still feel incredibly lucky to be involved.

Who are the most interesting game characters you've voiced?

I just love doing orcs and goblins and troll kings and stuff like that, so Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moria was great fun to do. Warhammer really stands out, it was really cool to be Ikit Claw and Bronkestus Toadcrust! I've recently done a couple of fun characters for a new Men In Black VR game too.

On one of my early jobs, IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey (which has possibly been renamed Wings Of Prey now - or maybe it's just the US name?), I was playing a fighter pilot whose older self narrated the game. The older me was Joss Ackland and I was pretty stunned when he came out of the studio and sat with me in the green room.

We had a lovely chat before I went in (sometimes that is how voiceovers work). His voice was magnificent, whenever he spoke the glass-topped coffee table would hum as it vibrated.

Any particularly memorable lines of dialogue/exclamations/noises?

I remember doing some voices for Warhammer: Vermintide II - well, the exertions to be exact, the grunts, moans, screams, deaths we often do at the end of games sessions (which I find really cathartic).

Quite a bit of phlegm built up at the back of my throat so that when the Gor (or Ungor?) I was playing was beheaded I actually wretched on the phlegm a few times and it sounded disgusting. The director and engineer loved it and I pretended I'd done it on purpose.

Sometimes you play multiple characters - would you generally just be asked for a certain voice type, or do you still get backstory/motivation for them?

Mostly, but not always, you get detailed biogs for any characters you're going to play, along with character designs. There's not much time to prepare, sometimes none, so we just try voices out in the booth until we find what's right. The important thing in trying out stuff is not to be too embarrassed to try anything, which is not always easy. I've sounded embarrassingly crap sometimes.

Anything else on your wish list, in the sci-fi/fantasy area - and what else are you up to, right now?

I'd love to do more in the Warhammer 40k world - I've only done a Warhammer 40k/World Of Warships crossover to date. Sci-fi/Fantasy has always been my thing so any games, animation or live action would be something I'd love to do.

I'm hoping whoever has bought the rights to Elric Of Melnibone does something with that soon - I started horse riding lessons the minute I heard it was a possibility! I would be really excited to be involved with anything Alien, Mad Max, Riddick or D&D. More in the LOTR world too.

At the moment I'm busy getting ready to promote my new illustrated children's book, Fart, Fart, Fart, Fart, FART!. It's obviously a very personal, deep and serious meditation upon censorship and the power of words but I'm not strictly sure it falls into the sci-fi category.