Nick Park: More plastic fantastic fun with Wallace and Gromit

Dec 22 2008 By Andy Welch

Nick Park is the multi award-winning creator of Wallace And Gromit, who return to BBC One on Christmas Day in A Matter Of Loaf And Death. We talk to Nick about the new adventure, his love of the characters and why he's happy to working for TV audiences again.

Wallace and Gromit have now cemented themselves in that prestigious list, and despite the fact the Plasticine animations aren't festive in theme, they certainly are in spirit. Repeats of their award-winning short films have become festive staples.

It's been 13 years since we last had a new TV programme featuring the duo, but this Christmas Day, there's a half-hour adventure involving the hapless inventor and his best friend fresh from the oven. It's called A Matter Of Loaf And Death.

It almost goes without saying that it's brilliant - Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park hasn't won four Oscars and received a CBE for nothing - and it's undoubtedly their most ambitious outing yet.

The show opens with a huge car chase, and features an action-packed ending that will have the whole family on tenterhooks.

More than two years in the planning, A Matter Of Loaf And Death took a team of 13 animators more than seven months to complete.

Each beautifully detailed scene consists of hundreds and hundreds of still images pieced together, requiring the animator responsible to make thousands of minute moves to each moulded creation.

On a good day, an animator might have a second-and-a-half's worth of usable footage.

"I tend to go by the idea that if something's going to be good, it's worth taking time over it," says Nick Park.

"If you think through every scene detail and the work that's gone into it, it makes the finished product more special, definitely.

"Not that I want people to be aware of the work all the time, though," he adds, thoughtfully.

"It's interesting for me to talk about the animation and the technical side of it all, but when people watch it I don't want them to be impressed by that, I just want them to love the final result and be entertained by it."

We're sitting in a hotel suite, and Nick is perched on the end of large sofa. In front of him sit Wallace and Gromit, the actual models used in the new film.

"They don't last long," he says, scooping up the models lovingly.

"The Plasticine dries out and cracks after a while."

He looks at the models more like children than clay creations, but then they have such presence, and we're so used to seeing them flying about the screen, it's hard not to view them as real beings. You almost expect them to come alive in your hand, or utter a catchphrase like 'Smashing cheese, Gromit'.

The statuesque Piella Bakewell, wearing a shocking pink dress, is Wallace's new love interest in the latest story.

"We got [former Coronation Street star] Sally Lindsay to do her voice," begins Nick.

"I'd already designed the character, and when I do that I'm always looking out for the person to play the part.

"I was driving back from Preston and heard Sally on Radio Two on the Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie show. I knew then that was her, I thought 'THAT'S PIELLA'!" he says, excitedly.

"Sally has a lot of fun in her voice, flamboyant almost, and I was also looking for someone who could be quite charming too, but with a slightly posh northern accent. Piella needed to at times sound well-to-do, and then at others sound quite gritty.

"I was just hoping they would say who it was because I'm not that familiar with Coronation Street, so didn't know who it was I was listening to," he continues.

"Thankfully, the DJs did and as soon as I got home, I went on the internet and looked her up, and knew she was perfect. That's how we do auditions at Aardman Animations!"

He then reveals the agent of Mark 'Luke Skywalker' Hamill contacted him once and said how keen Mark was to be involved in one of the Plasticine adventures. The call wasn't returned.

It's hard to believe we first saw Wallace and Gromit back in 1989 when Channel 4 showed A Grand Day Out.

The story was beautifully simple - the pair decided to build a rocket to go to the moon after they ran out of cheese. While the animation was nowhere near as slick as it is in the more recent instalments, the distinctive humour that has become the franchise's calling card was firmly in place.

There's a wry northern wit running through the scripts - so charming that Nick admits to having been offered the chance to write scripts for live-action drama. Visual puns are around every corner, as are unexpected pop culture references and nods to past Wallace and Gromit outings.

A Matter Of Loaf And Death is no different. Feathers McGraw, the sinister penguin from The Wrong Trousers makes a very brief appearance, the windmill-cum-bakery the pair live and work in is littered with bread puns - they operate a 'dough to door' delivery service, for example - and there's one scene that sees Wallace and Piella becoming Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in an iconic scene from 1990 chick flick Ghost.

"I've only watched the film with an audience once," admits Nick, "but I was amazed how quickly they got that reference. As soon as the first note of Unchained Melody came on, and the bread dough hits the turntable, everybody was laughing."

The laughter must come as a great relief for Nick, who admits to being so close to his work that he sometimes doesn't know how people are going to react to it.

Thankfully, he has a team of trusted colleagues around him, Bob Baker - inspiration for the character Baker Bob in AMOLAD - in particular.

As previously mentioned, it's the first new Wallace And Gromit adventure on TV for 13 years, but that doesn't mean Nick and the team at Aardman Animations have been standing still.

Since A Close Shave was released, we've had Chicken Run and a feature-length W&G film, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, which is also being shown on BBC One on Christmas Day.

If you think seven months of animating is a lot of work for half an hour's television, the cinematic offerings take the best part of three years to film, with four times as many animators working on them.

Unsurprisingly, Nick wanted to take a break from such huge commitments, and is glad to be back working with for the small screen.

"I've enjoyed doing this half hour," he says.

"Especially as we're coming off the back of two features. The whole process is so big, and every idea is scrutinised. I found this short really refreshing because of that, very satisfying.

"I think the BBC gave me one note in the whole seven months, whereas towards the end of the feature films, things were becoming too much about what the focus groups thought," he continues.

"Therefore, it was all about the American audience, and I don't know how to write for them, I don't necessarily want to focus on what some kid in America wants either. I can't relate to that audience, so I don't want to please them.

"I want to do what comes naturally, and if people like it, they like it, and if they don't, they don't. It's far more satisfying that way."

NICK PARK - EXTRA TIME

Nick Park was born in Preston, Lancashire, in December 1958. He now has a college campus named after him in his hometown.

Last Of The Summer Wine star Peter Sallis, now 87, provides the voice for Wallace, and performed in A Grand Day Out for free as a favour to Nick, who was a student at the time and had written the actor a letter asking him to lend his talents.

One of Nick's first assignments when he got his job at Aardman Animations was the groundbreaking video for Peter Gabriel's hit single Sledgehammer.

Nick admits that he partly based Wallace on his dad, who he describes as a tinkerer.

"I remember him making a caravan from scratch," he says. "It was like a living room on wheels."

Although Nick Park has always been vague on when Wallace and Gromit is set, their address - 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan - can be seen on an envelope in The Wrong Trousers, and Park has hinted the look and feel of the films are greatly inspired by the 1950s.

Wallace And Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death screens on BBC One on Christmas Day. Their feature-length outing The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit gets its TV debut on the same day.