film is doing much more than I am, working millisecond by millisecond, and just creating this amazing thing.That’s the most exciting, fun part when you start to see the fruits.” Whitehead was a fan as a kid, and used to do the odd voices, accents and impressions. So he was glad to get a call from a friend in Bristol who was working with Aardman Animations at the time and needed reading actors to cast for the new film. “I had to get down there in two hours. I don’t think I’ve hung up the phone that quickly before, and luckily I was in the West Country. It was a good example of why it’s important to stay in contact with your good friends and be in the right place at the right time.Your friends and contacts are so important to you as an actor,” says Whitehead. “I did a read, and it just so happened that I could do the voice. I never auditioned to do the voice of Wallace.They kept me on as a reading actor and then eventually, I sort of understudied Peter Sallis. It’s certainly developed over the years, and they’ve given me the time to do that, which I’m extremely grateful for.” Wallace & Gromit:Vengeance Most Fowl, is a brand new feature-length film that will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Christmas. It was directed by BAFTA Award-winning English filmmaker and animator Nick Park, 65, who created Wallace & Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, Chicken Run, Early Man, and Creature Comforts, and BAFTA Award-winning director and animator Merlin Crossingham, who in 2009 took on the role of creative director for Wallace & Gromit. As the eccentric, cheese-loving inventor Wallace becomes over-dependent on his inventions, his best friend and loyal pooch, Gromit, develops growing concerns that prove to be justified when Wallace invents a ‘smart gnome’ that seems to develop an evil mind of its own. But who or what could be the cause? As events begin to spiral out of control, it’s up to Gromit to put aside his qualms and battle sinister forces, or Wallace may never be able to invent again. One of the film’s main characters, Feathers McGraw, was last seen in the 1993 BAFTA and Academy Award-winning short The Wrong Trousers, which saw the manipulative and calculating penguin – already a wanted criminal – rent out a room at Wallace and Gromit’s house where he sought to use Wallace’s techno trousers to steal a blue diamond. Rightfully behind bars ever since, he’s now back for revenge…
“It wasn’t the decision to start with actually.We’ve often had people ask if he’s ever going to return, but never really found a good enough reason.There was no need to exploit a character without really good context and we already had a well-developed idea about Wallace inventing a smart gnome, which was full of great fun,” says Park. “But then there’s always a need for a villain with a clear motivation and there was Feathers, the worst villain Wallace had ever encountered. It was such a great opportunity, like a eureka moment.And then we suddenly realised how popular he was when people started responding to the trailer.” “A good villain has got to enjoy hating and I think viewers enjoy his badness.They need strength and power. Feathers is very calculated and that comes across in the film.You can almost see his thoughts happening behind his dark eyes.You’ve got to love your villains, I think it’s quite important,” says Crossingham. “Feathers is based on many villains, who aren’t very active, they just observe and step in when the time is just right, where they can take the best advantage. Mark Burton, the writer, was very much leaning into this idea of loving your villain, where you even start to sympathise with them and see the world from their perspective for a while. Sometimes the music is an aid to this because essentially he is a hero to his own story,” adds Park.
Wallace & Gromit:Vengeance Most Fowl will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day
But why did Park and Crossingham think it was the right time to bring Feathers back to our screens this Christmas?
Photo: Gromit, Norbot and Wallace..
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