This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Peter Sallis
Born	(1921-02-01) 1 February 1921 (age 91) Twickenham, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1947–Present
Spouse	Elaine Usher (1957-present; 1 son, Timothy Crispian Sallis)
Awards	Annie - Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production 2006 Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Wallace/Hutch

Peter Sallis, OBE (born 1 February 1921) is an English actor and entertainer, well known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.

Sallis is best known for his role as the main character Norman Clegg in the long-running British TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine, set in a Yorkshire town. He was the longest serving cast member, appearing in all 295 episodes, and by the end of the show's run was the only one surviving from the programme's first episode in 1973. He also appeared in all 13 of the episodes of the prequel series First of the Summer Wine as Norman Clegg's father. He is also famous for providing the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films, again using a northern accent.

Early life[link]

Sallis was born on 1 February 1921 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, the only child of Dorothy Amea (née Barnard) and Harry Sallis. After attending Minchenden Grammar School in North London, Sallis went to work in a bank. After the outbreak of World War II he joined the RAF. He failed to get into aircrew because he had a serum albumin disorder and he was told he might black out at high altitudes. He became a wireless mechanic instead and went on to teach radio procedures at RAF Cranwell.

Sallis started as an amateur actor during his four years with the RAF when one of his students offered him the lead in an amateur production. His success in the role caused him to resolve to become an actor after the war, and so he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his first professional appearance on the London stage in 1946.

Career[link]

Sallis became a notable character actor on the London stage in the 1950s and 1960s. His credits include the first West End production of Cabaret opposite Judi Dench in 1968. He also appeared in character parts in British films of the time, including a few Hammer Films. In 1968, he was cast as the well intentioned Coker in a BBC Radio production of John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids.

His first notable television role was as Samuel Pepys in the BBC serial of the same name in 1958. In 1961, he appeared as Gordon in the "Find and Destroy" episode of Danger Man.^[1] He appeared in the Doctor Who story "The Ice Warriors" in 1967, playing renegade scientist Elric Penley; and in 1983 was due to play the role of Striker in another Doctor Who story, "Enlightenment", but had to withdraw. He was Doctor Watson to Fritz Weaver's Sherlock Holmes in the Broadway musical Baker Street in 1967. He introduced what the critics considered the show's best musical number: A Married Man .

In 1970, he was cast in the BBC comedy series The Culture Vultures, which saw him play stuffy Professor George Hobbs to Leslie Phillips's laid-back rogue Dr Michael Cunningham. During the production, Phillips was rushed to hospital with an internal haemorrhage and as a result, only five episodes were made.

1971 saw Sallis acting alongside Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in an episode of "The Persuaders!" entitled "The Long Goodbye". He appeared late in the episode as David Piper, a former clerk in a company who was elevated to a substantially higher position and salary as his reward for installing an explosive device in an aeroplane that killed its pilot. The pilot was a noted scientist whose research would have been detrimental to the company that employed Piper.

Sallis was cast in a one-off pilot for Comedy Playhouse entitled "Of Funerals and Fish" (1973), which became Last of the Summer Wine, as the unobtrusive lover of a quiet life, Norman Clegg. Sallis had already worked with Michael Bates, who played unofficial ring-leader Blamire in the first two series, on stage. The pilot was successful and the BBC commissioned a series. Sallis played the role of Clegg from 1973 to 2010, and was the only cast member to appear in every episode. In 1988 he appeared as Clegg's father in First of the Summer Wine, a prequel to Last Of The Summer Wine set in 1939.

In 1974 he played Mr Bonteen in the BBC period drama The Pallisers. Between 1976 and 1978 he appeared in the children's series The Ghosts of Motley Hall, in which he played Mr Gudgin, an estate agent who did not want to see the Hall fall into the wrong hands. In 1977 he played Rodney Gloss in the BBC series Murder Most English.

In 1978, he starred alongside Northern comic actor David Roper in the ITV sitcom Leave it to Charlie as Charlie's pessimistic boss. The programme ran for four series, ending in 1980. Also in 1978, he played the part of the ghost hunter Milton Guest in the children's paranormal drama series The Clifton House Mystery.

In 1983, he was the narrator on Rocky Hollow a show produced by Bumper Films for S4C. Between 1984 and 1990, he alternated with Ian Carmichael as the voice of Rat in the British television series The Wind in the Willows, based on the book by Kenneth Grahame. Alongside him were Michael Hordern as Badger, David Jason as Toad and Richard Pearson as Mole. The series was animated in stop motion, prefiguring his work with Aardman Animations. He appeared in the last episode of Rumpole of the Bailey in 1992 and he later starred alongside Brenda Blethyn, Kevin Whately and Anna Massey in the 2004 one-off ITV1 drama 'Belonging'.

Sallis achieved great success when, in 1989 he voiced Wallace, the eccentric inventor in Aardman Animations' Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out. This film won a BAFTA award and was followed by the Oscar-winning films The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and A Close Shave in 1995. Though the characters were temporarily retired in 1996, Sallis has returned to voice Wallace in several short films and in the Oscar-winning 2005 motion picture Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, for which he won an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production. Most recently Sallis starred in a new Wallace and Gromit adventure, A Matter of Loaf and Death, in 2008. In 2010 he provided the voice for Wallace in the TV show Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention.

Sallis was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2007 for services to Drama. On 17 May 2009 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.^[2]

Autobiography[link]

In 2006, Sallis published a well-received autobiography entitled, with typical self-deprecation, Fading Into the Limelight. Roger Lewis in The Mail on Sunday stated "Though Sallis is seemingly submissive, he has a sly wit and sharp intelligence that make this book a total delight."

Sallis starred with Orson Welles in Welles' stage play, Moby Dick—Rehearsed and tells of a later meeting with him where he received a mysterious telephone call summoning him to the deserted and spooky Gare d'Orsay in Paris where Welles announced he wanted him to dub Hungarian bit-players in his cinema adaptation of Kafka's The Trial. As Sallis says "the episode was Kafka-esque, to coin a phrase."

Despite his nearly 37 years in Last Of The Summer Wine, this is far from the main focus of the book, in which Sallis also recounts the early era of his relationship with Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park when it took six years for A Grand Day Out to be completed. He says that his work as Wallace has "raised his standing a few notches in the public eye".

Personal life[link]

Sallis suffers from macular degeneration and in 2005 recorded an appeal on BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Macular Disease Society. He recorded a television appeal on behalf of the society which was broadcast on BBC One on 8 March 2009.

Television roles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Peter Sallis at the Internet Movie Database
• "Desert Island Discs". Desert Island Discs. 17 May 2009. BBC. Radio 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kc1lz. 

Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff
Born	Minnie Higginbottom (1928-07-12)12 July 1928 Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, UK
Died	13 December 2008(2008-12-13) (aged 80) Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Other names	Katherine Brant
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1946–2008
Spouse	John Staff (m. 1951–2008)

Kathy Staff (born Minnie Higginbottom; 12 July 1928 – 13 December 2008) was an English actress, well known for her work on British television. She is most famous for her portrayal of Nora Batty on the longest running sitcom in the world, Last of the Summer Wine.

Last of the Summer Wine[link]

Born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, Staff was best known for her role as one of the main characters, Nora Batty, in the long-running BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. She played Nora from the pilot episode in 1973,^[1] until 2008, the year she died.

Early life and career[link]

She began her acting career with touring repertory companies in 1946, changing her name to Katherine Brant. After she married John Staff in 1951,^[1] she adopted the surname as her stage name, hence Kathy Staff. She retired from the stage at this point to raise her family, but starting working as an extra for Granada Television in Manchester in the 1960s.

Television[link]

Staff had a regular role as Doris Luke in the popular ITV soap opera, Crossroads from 1978 to 1985 and 2001 to 2002. Her other television roles included Coronation Street as Vera Hopkins,^[1] No Frills as Molly Bickerstaff, Open All Hours as Mrs Blewitt, Dawson's Weekly and The Benny Hill Show. She appeared in a television version of Separate Tables in 1983.

Theatre[link]

Her theatre roles included Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at Birmingham Rep, Madame Arcati and Mrs Malaprop in touring productions of Blithe Spirit and The Rivals respectively and a touring production of the comedy Sailor Beware, as well as two West End plays: the farce Two into One and comedy When We Are Married, and many pantomimes.^[2]

Films[link]

She appeared in A Kind of Loving in 1962 as Thora Hird's neighbour, as well as The Dresser in 1983, Camille in 1984, Little Dorrit in 1988 and Mary Reilly in 1996.

Illness and death[link]

She died on 13 December 2008 at the Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton-under-Lyne, at the age of 80, with her husband John at her bedside, after a brain tumour was diagnosed earlier in the year.^[3][4] Her death was announced on 14 December.^[5] Her funeral took place at St Mark's Dukinfield, where she was a lifelong member and sang in the choir. She is commemorated in a memorial screen at the church. ^[6]

Television roles[link]

Further reading[link]

• Staff, Kathy (1999). Book of Happy Families. 
• Staff, Kathy (1999). My Story, Wrinkles & All. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kathy Staff at the Internet Movie Database
• Obituary in The Times Retrieved on 2008-12-15
• Obituary in The Independent

Wallace and Gromit are the main characters in a British series consisting of four animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The characters are made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures, and filmed with stop motion clay animation.

Wallace, an absent-minded inventor living in Wigan, Lancashire, is a cheese enthusiast who is especially fond of Wensleydale. His companion, Gromit, is an anthropomorphic intelligent dog. Wallace is voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis; Gromit remains silent, communicating only through facial expressions and body language.

Because of their endearing (if quirky) personalities and widespread popularity, the characters have been described as positive international icons of both modern British culture in particular and the British people in general. BBC News has called them "some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK".^[1] Icons has said they have done "more to improve the image of the English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors".^[2] The short films The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave and the full length feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit all received Academy Awards. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but lost to Creature Comforts, another animated creation of Nick Park. The most recent short film A Matter of Loaf and Death was likewise nominated in 2010. The films have received critical acclaim, with all four of the short films having 100% positive ratings on aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and the feature film having a 95% rating, placing it in the top 20 animated feature films on the site.

The two characters appear in the monthly BeanoMAX comic and daily in The Sun. They are also heavily featured in 'Aardmag', the free online magazine that is unofficial but supported by Aardman Animations.^[3]

Wallace & Gromit: The Thrill-O-Matic is due to open at Pleasure Beach Blackpool in 2013.

Wallace[link]

Voiced by Peter Sallis (and by Ben Whitehead in Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures)^[4] Wallace is the main protagonist and can usually be found wearing a white shirt, brown wool trousers, a green knitted pullover, and a red tie. He is best known for his love of cheese, especially Wensleydale,^[5] and crackers. His birthday is 7 August. The thought of Lancashire hotpot keeps him from going into crisis. He enjoys tea or a drop of Bordeaux red for special occasions. He reads the Morning, Afternoon and Evening Post.

Wallace is an inveterate inventor, creating elaborate contraptions that often do not work as intended. He is a self-proclaimed genius, evident from his exclamation when he discovers Hutch's borrowed skill, a talent for all things mechanical. Most of Wallace's inventions look not unlike the designs of W. Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg, and Nick Park has said of Wallace that all his inventions are designed around the principle of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Wallace's official job varies; in A Close Shave he is a window washer. In The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace runs a humane pest extermination service, keeping the captured creatures (nearly all of which are rabbits) in the basement of his house. In the most recent short he is a baker.

Some of Wallace's contraptions are based on real inventions. For example, his method of getting up in the morning incorporates a bed that tips over to wake up its owner, an invention that was exhibited at The Great Exhibition of 1851 by Theophilus Carter, and is similar to a device sold in Japan that is used to ensure the sleeper awakens on time by inflating a pillow under their normal pillow and rolling the person, thus waking them up.

He has a kindly nature, and is perhaps a little over-optimistic. At times he can be a little selfish and inconsiderate, but he has a good heart and always means well. Nick Park, his creator, says: "He's a very self-contained figure. A very homely sort who doesn't mind the odd adventure." He is loosely based on Nick Park's father,^[6] whom Nick described in a radio interview as "an incurable tinkerer". He described one of his father's constructions, a combination beach hut and trailer, as having curtains in the windows, bookshelves on the walls, and full-sized furniture bolted to the floor. The way he dresses and his love for cheese is based on an eccentric school teacher.

In the first photo shown on The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, it was revealed that once, when Gromit was little, Wallace had much more hair and a beard. On the photo that shows Gromit's graduation at Dogwarts, he had lost his beard, but still had a little hair, in the form of little patches just above his ears. The reason behind Wallace's loss of hair is unknown. As shown in The Wrong Trousers, he still uses a hair-dryer. In a "Matter of Loaf and Death", when Wallace is talking to Gromit, a picture is seen behind Gromit of Wallace with a brown beard and brown hair.

Wallace has had three love interests. The first was Wendolene Ramsbottom,^[7] which ended quickly when Wallace realised that she was allergic to cheese. The second was Lady Tottington in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, whom Wallace fondly calls "Totty." In A Matter of Loaf and Death, Wallace becomes engaged to Piella Bakewell,^[8] but this ended when she turned out to be a murderess who hated bakers, and was eaten by crocodiles upon trying to escape justice.

Gromit[link]

Gromit is Wallace's pet dog and also is generally more intelligent than Wallace, also the main protagonist. His birthday is 12 February.^[9] Gromit graduated from "Dogwarts University" ('Dogwarts' being a pun on 'Hogwarts', the wizard school from the Harry Potter books) with a double first in Engineering for Dogs.^[10] He likes knitting, playing chess, reading the newspaper and cooking. His prized possessions include his alarm clock, bone, brush, and a framed photo of himself with Wallace. He is also very handy with electronic equipment and an excellent aeroplane pilot. Though not mentioned a lot but according to Wallace or any other person he is a beagle.^[11]

Gromit is the deuteragonist and has no visible mouth and he does not express himself with spoken words, but his facial expressions and body language speak volumes. Original plans were that Peter Hawkins was going to voice him, but Nick dropped the idea of it when he realized how clear Gromit's expressions could be just through small movements.^[12][13] Many critics believe that Gromit's silence makes him the perfect straight man with a pantomime expressiveness that drew favourable comparisons to Buster Keaton.^[14] He does at times make dog-like noises, such as yelps and growling.^[15] Nick Park says: "We are a nation of dog-lovers and so many people have said: 'My dog looks at me just like Gromit does!'" Gromit enjoys eating "KornFlakes" and reading many books, including The Republic, by Pluto (a nod to the Disney character of the same name and a pun on Plato); Crime and Punishment, by Fido Dogstoyevsky (a pun on Fyodor Dostoyevsky); and a "how-to" guide entitled, Electronics for Dogs. In A Matter of Loaf and Death, a copy of Pup fiction is seen in the bin, a pun on Pulp Fiction. He also listens to Bach, knits, and solves puzzles with ease.

Sometimes, Gromit refuses to take (or simply ignores) Wallace's orders, such as in A Close Shave and Shopper 13, wherein Wallace orders him to get rid of Shaun, but Gromit doesn't.

On April 1, 2007, HMV announced that Gromit would stand in for Nipper for a three month period, promoting children's DVDs in its UK stores.^[16]

NASA has named one of its new prototype Mars explorer robots after Gromit.^[17]

Unlike his master, Gromit has only had one love interest: Fluffles, a poodle and pet to Piella. Fluffles does not share her mistress's hatred of bakers and joined Wallace and Gromit delivering bread at the end of A Matter of Loaf and Death. At the end of it, she is seen with Gromit making a delivery, while listening to "Puppy Love".

In 2010, Empire Magazine placed Gromit first in their list of "The 50 best animated movie characters" Gromit beat such characters as Homer Simpson, Wall-E and Woody from Toy Story to the top spot. Empire wrote that; "Gromit doesn't ever say a word, but there has never been a more expressive character (animated or otherwise) to grace our screens." ^[18]

Filmography[link]

30-minute films[link]

• A Grand Day Out (1989)
• The Wrong Trousers (1993)
• A Close Shave (1995)
• A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)

Feature-length films[link]

• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Spin-offs[link]

• Shaun the Sheep (2007–2010) - TV series
• Timmy Time (2009–present) - TV series

Other appearances[link]

• Cracking Contraptions (2002)
• Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention (2010)^[19]

In 2003, Aardman produced a cinematic commercial for the Renault Kangoo starring Wallace and Gromit. The ad played in front of several summer blockbusters in top British cinemas. The commercial, entitled "The Kangoo-matic", was Wallace and Gromit's first advertisement. Later Wallace and Gromit commercials were made for Jacob's Cream Crackers, energy supplier Npower and beverage PG Tips. The characters also appeared in a commercial for Children In Need in 2009, as well as in the Christmas advert for Marks and Spencer.

On March 28, 2009, The Science Museum in London, opened an exhibition called "Wallace & Gromit present a World of Cracking Ideas." The family-oriented show hopes to inspire children to be inventive.^[20] Official Page,Science Museum Page, The exhibit was open until 1 November 2009.^[21] Wallace and Gromit were featured in many exhibition-exclusive videos, as well as one announcing the opening of the exhibition.(viewable on the Aardman YouTube channel)

In 2010, the Royal Mail announced that a series of Wallace and Gromit images would feature on the 2010 Christmas postage stamps^[22]

On the 19th April it was announced that Wallace and Gromit will appear in a short for the BBC Proms in July.

Wallace and Gromit will appear in a 1 minute special for the queens Diamond Jubilee called Jubilee Bunt-a-thon.^[23]

Location[link]

While not overtly setting the series in any particular town, Nick Park had previously hinted that its milieu was inspired by thoughts of 1950s Wigan, reinforced by an A-Z Wigan being displayed on Wallace's Anti-Pesto van in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.^[24] In The Wrong Trousers, Gromit picks up a letter at the Wallace and Gromit residence addressed to "62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan".^[24] The address includes a postcode of WG7 7FU, though this does not match any street in Wigan, whose postcodes begin with the letters WN.^{[25][original research?]} Wallace's accent (voiced by Peter Sallis) comes from the Holme Valley of West Yorkshire. Near the beginning of A Matter of Loaf and Death, Wigan is referenced on the newspaper Wallace is reading, and near the end, while looking for somewhere appropriate to dispose of a bomb, Gromit sees the Yorkshire border from their home (a joke referencing the rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire).

In the Cracking Contraptions episode "The Soccamatic", Wallace says to Gromit, "How do you like my Preston North End soccamatic, Gromit?". Whether this is the team they support, or rather where they live, is unknown.

Both Ramsbottom and Tottington are small towns near Bury, and both are the names of love interests of Wallace.

At the end of Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out, Wallace tells Gromit to set coordinates for "62 West Wallaby Street" as they are returning to Earth.

Other people have said that Wallace's home town is not unlike Beanotown.^[26]

Stop-motion technique[link]

The Wallace and Gromit movies are shot using the stop motion animation technique.^[27] After detailed storyboarding, set and plasticine model construction, the movie's shot one frame at a time, moving the models of the characters slightly to give the impression of movement in the final film. In common with other animation techniques, the stop motion animation in Wallace and Gromit may duplicate frames if there is little motion, and in action scenes sometimes multiple exposures per frame are used to produce a faux motion blur. Because a second of film constitutes 24 separate frames, even a short half-hour film like A Close Shave takes a great deal of time to animate well. General quotes on the speed of animation of a Wallace and Gromit film put the filming rate at typically around 30 frames per day — i.e. just over one second of film photographed for each day of production. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an example for how long this technique takes to produce quality animation; it took 15 months to make.

As with Park's previous movies, the special effects achieved within the limitations of the stop motion technique were quite pioneering and ambitious. In A Close Shave, for example, consider the soap suds in the window cleaning scene, and the projectile globs of porridge in Wallace's house. There was even an explosion in "The Auto Chef", part of the Cracking Contraptions shorts. Some effects (particularly fire, smoke, and floating bunnies) in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit proved impossible to do in stop motion and so were rendered on computer.

Park has consistently turned down requests for an ongoing television series due to the time and effort that would be required for even a single episode.

Most of the models were destroyed in the 2005 Aardman studio fire, but a set from A Matter of Loaf and Death is presently on display at the At-Bristol science centre.^[28]

Video games[link]

A Wallace and Gromit interactive CD-ROM game from circa 1995, named W&G: Cracking Contraptions, has been released for the PC, containing mini games based on the three original animated shorts as well as brief video clips, wallpapers, screen savers, and sounds that could be assigned as system sounds.^[29]

In September 2003, Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Windows.^[30] This separate story sees the duo take on Feathers McGraw (of The Wrong Trousers) again. Still obsessed with diamonds, he escapes from the penguin enclosure of West Wallaby Zoo, where he was "imprisoned" at the end of The Wrong Trousers, and takes over the entire zoo, kidnapping young animals and forcing their parents to work for him, helping him turn the zoo into a diamond mine.^[30]

Wallace and Gromit, meanwhile, have adopted one of the zoo's baby polar bears, named Archie. As they go to visit the zoo to celebrate his birthday, they find the zoo closed. A quick spot of inventing back at the house, and they prepare to embark on their latest adventure. Hiding inside a giant wooden penguin, a parody of the famous Trojan Horse, they infiltrate the zoo, and set about rescuing the animals and undoing Feathers' work.

In 2005, a video game of The Curse of The Were-Rabbit was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, following the plot of the film as Wallace and Gromit work as vermin-catchers, protecting customers' vegetable gardens from rabbits, using a "BunGun".^[31]

Gameplay for the Project Zoo involve players exclusively controlling Gromit, as Wallace functions as a helper non-player character, but in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, gameplay shifts between the two, and even includes two-player cooperative play.^[32]

Both games were developed by Frontier Developments with the assistance of Aardman, with Peter Sallis reprising his role as Wallace. Project Zoo was published by BAM! Entertainment, while The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was published by Konami.^[32]

In July 2008, developer Telltale Games announced a new series of episodic video games based on the characters, called Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.^[33] The first episode in Grand Adventures, "Fright of the Bumblebees", was released on 23 March 2009.^[34] The second episode, "The Last Resort", was released on 5 May 2009.^[35] 2 more episodes, "Muzzled!" and "The Boogey Man" were released in later 2009. The four episodes have separately been released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360.

Comic[link]

British publisher Titan Magazines started producing a monthly Wallace and Gromit comic after the debut of Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The characters still run Anti-Pesto, and both Shaun and Feathers McGraw have appeared in the comic.^[36]

A comic based on the spin-off series, Shaun the Sheep, is being published, also by Titan Magazines. The first issue was released on 29 March 2007.

The Wallace and Gromit comic strip also appears in BeanoMAX. Nick Park guest-edited the 70th birthday issue of The Beano weekly, and so this issue contained numerous Wallace & Gromit references.^[37]

On 17 May 2010, they started appearing in The Sun.^[38] It is credited to Titan and Aardman, with art by Mychailo Kazybrid. It replaced George and Lynne.

The comic is now available as a series of apps on iPod Touch and iPhone.

Popular culture[link]

Wallace and Gromit were used to promote a Harvey Nichols store that opened in Bristol (where Aardman is based) in 2008. The pictures show them, and Lady Tottington from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, wearing designer clothes and items.^[39] The duo have been used in numerous advertising campaigns down the years. Wallace and Gromit have also been used as the TV Station Ident for Christmas periods for the BBC, in both 1995 and 2008. They were also used to prevent a Wensleydale cheese factory from shutting down due to financial difficulties after a member of staff came up with the idea to use Wallace and Gromit as mascots, as Wensleydale is one of Wallace's favourite cheeses.^[40][41]

The duo were parodied as Willis and Crumble in an episode of The Simpsons entitled Angry Dad: The Movie. Nick Park also made a voice cameo as himself in the same episode.

The theme song was used to wake up astronauts aboard space shuttle mission STS-132 in May 2010.^[42] It has been suggested on BBC Radio 4's 'PM' that the theme should become the England football supporters' song, instead of the Great Escape.^[43]

In December 2010, while appearing on Desert Island Discs, Nick Park announced that he was working with Pleasure Beach Blackpool to build a theme park ride based on the characters.^[44]

Music[link]

The music featured in all the films was written by Julian Nott, a British film composer.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wallace and Gromit

• Official website
• The Wallace & Gromit Children's Foundation
• BBC One - Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention