Wallace and Gromit to return to TV

Wallace and Gromit are set to return to TV in 2008 with a new half-hour adventure – their first since A Close Shave in 1995. The new film will reunite creator Nick Park with writer Bob Baker who co-wrote both The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.

Aardman Animations have announced that the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog will star in Trouble at' Mill, a murder mystery that sees Wallace and Gromit running a bakery business. It will also introduce a new love interest for Wallace - bread enthusiast Piella Bakewell.

Nick Park told BBC News: "This one we're making for the BBC. It's going to be a seven or eight-month shoot. That's faster than we've ever done it before. It's nice to be out of that feature film pressure now. I don't feel like I'm making a film for a kid in some suburb of America - and being told they're not going to understand a joke, or a northern saying."

"I love making films for the cinema but the production of Chicken Run and Curse of the Were-Rabbit [the recent Oscar winning Wallace and Gromit film] were virtually back to back and each film took five years to complete", he said.

Shooting starts on Trouble at' Mill in January at Aardman studios in Bristol. It is expected to broadcast on BBC1 in late 2008.