Nick Park

Shaun the Sheep hits the big screen with guests

Creator Nick Park and Radio Times competition winner Jennie King both make cameo appearances in the Shaun the Sheep Movie - and this week's magazine features an exclusive Blippar animation...

Wallace and Gromit may retire

Nick Park said he was unsure whether to continue the much-loved British comedy without actor Peter Sallis, who has voiced Wallace since 1990 when he accepted the voiceover job for £25, yet is growing increasingly frail at 93. The voice of the veteran, who starred in Last of the Summer Wine, is inextricably linked with Wensleydale-loving Wallace, - but Sallis is said to be in poor health.

How we made Wallace and Gromit

Gromit was a cat, Wallace had a moustache, and their first adventure was meant to be like Star Wars - but with cheese. Nick Park and Peter Lord on creating a British classic.

Nick Park: Gromit was originally going to be a cat

Ahead of their appearance at the BBC Proms, the claymation duo's creator reveals how a feline Gromit turned into a dog.

Aardman Animations, the studio behind many of Nick Park's triumphs, conjures another stop-motion corker that fairly swarms with clever little jokes and details. Our heroes here are a group of jauntily anthropomorphic chickens; they're plotting their escape to freedom from the tyrannical Mr and Mrs Tweedy, who run the farm on which they live. The voice cast boasts Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks and Mel Gibson.

Nick Park's Desert Island Discs: Cracking tunes, Gromit

Aardman Animations' Nick Park picked his castaway tracks and chatted about blagging half a ton of plasticine and a Wallace and Gromit rollercoaster.

Nick Park hints at 3D Plasticine animation

Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park has said that he would like to make a Plasticine animation in 3D.

He may not have the brand recognition of Wallace and Gromit among adults, but chances are that any anklebiters in your vicinity will already be well-versed in the ways of Shaun the Sheep. For the uninitiated, though: Nick Park's cheeky farmyard dweller made his debut back in 1995 in A Close Shave, before getting his own series in 2007. His adventures consist largely of pulling the wool over the eyes of the Farmer and Bitzer, the long-suffering sheepdog. Terrific fun, showing daily.

I was disappointed with Wallace & Gromit. Great animation, some fun moments, imaginative action scenes, a few good in-jokes (especially Ghost and Aliens), but it all felt too insular, predictable and repetitive to me. Wallace gets another love-interest, there's another killer on the loose (human this time), Wallace just gets dopier and needs rescuing again. The only notable change was having the obligatory dog turn out not to be the villain's accomplice. After the Curse Of The Were-Rabbit feature-length movie, Loaf & Death felt like a step backwards for Nick Park. Why not create some new characters, instead of sticking to the safe bet of W&G? Oh well, 15 million people watched, which will hopefully bankroll a BBC-funded movie before Peter Sallis snuffs it.

Whether it is the scheduling proximity of this short to the feature-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit or simply because you expect such marvellous things from Nick Park and Aardman Animations, there's something underwhelming about the latest outing for one man and his dog. It's lovingly crafted, replete with rewarding little details, references and homage (the pair's bakery is Top Bun) and Sally Lindsay's Piella Bakewell is suitably monstrous, but the story - of a serial killer (or possibly cereal killer) who is battering bakers to death with their own rolling pins - fails to really fly, not least because it's only half an hour long. Still, it's a sweet and wholesome distraction between the woe in EastEnders.