Nick Park

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.

Wallace and Gromit return to TV

Wallace and Gromit are to return in a half-hour television adventure - the first since 1995's A Close Shave.

Aardman Animations has announced that the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog will star in Trouble At' Mill - to screen on BBC One in late 2008.

Creator Nick Park said: "The story takes Wallace and Gromit in a direction we haven't seen before - both emotionally and technically."

TV series for Shaun the Sheep

Shaun the Sheep - the popular character from Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave - has been given his own TV series. The woolly star will feature in Aardman's first series for TV, which will broadcast on CBBC later this year. Created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations, the character has won over a huge fan base. The 40-part animated series, set on a farm, is being sold to 72 countries.