Wallace and Gromit: Veangence Most Fowl Review: "Cracking Christmas treat, Gromit!"

Wallace, Gromit and Norbot. | Aardman Animations

It seems like a long time ago since Britain’s TV channels seriously duked it out for Christmas viewers, with vast audiences tuning into the likes of Only Fools And Horses and Morecambe & Wise. Nothing says Christmas like serving divorce papers - something that 30 million Eastenders fans watched ‘Dirty’ Den do to Angie in 1986.

In these days of streaming the schedulers seem to have given up, with a mixture of cookery programmes, endless repeats and ancient films (really, Channel 4, Raiders of the Lost Ark?) filling the terrestrial stations. On STV, if it wasn’t for a rebooted Bullseye Christmas Special you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just a normal day. Luckily the BBC are still fighting the good fight and had a well-stuffed menu of holiday viewing. Following the King’s Christmas Message it was wall-to-wall televisual tinsel with big-hitters like Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, Gavin & Stacey and the latest misery from Albert Square. It wasn’t all good news though - there was also a Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special.

The jewel in the Beeb’s festive crown was new Wallace and Gromit adventure Vengeance Most Fowl. (BBC 1, Christmas Day, 6.10pm). Technically the film premiered in America back in October to make sure it was eligible for the Oscars (a Golden Globe nomination has already been bagged) but this was the first chance for mere mortals in the UK to see it - and what a joy it was.

A direct sequel to the Academy Award-winning short The Wrong Trousers, it sees the return of master of disguise Feathers McGraw, the dead-eyed penguin locked up in a high security zoo after his failed diamond heist. He’s dreaming of revenge on cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his eminently more sensible canine companion Gromit. Meanwhile, Wallace has invented an absolutely terrifying topiary-obsessed gardening gnome called Norbot, wonderfully voiced by Reece Sheersmith. At first he seems to be a great way to pay the mounting bills (inventors are not immune to the cost of living crisis) until he unwittingly becomes the perfect tool for Feathers to make his escape - hacking into the robot’s programming, changing his setting to ‘evil’, and creating an army of mechanised kleptomaniacs to frame our heroes. Setting out to clear their names while being pursued by the law, they have a grand adventure, culminating in a wildly-inventive canal barge chase.

As ever, Nick Park and his army of Aardman animators work wonders with plasticine, creating a world more magical than anything a computer could generate. Indeed the entire plot cautions against blithly accepting modern technology when sometimes the old ways are the best - whether it’s patting a dog or creating immaculate stop motion animation. The love can be seen in every thumb print pressed into Feathers’ otherwise smooth head. It’s also tremendously funny, with repeated viewings essential to catch the hundreds of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sight gags and sly cinematic references contained in its spry 79 minute run time.

All the voicework is as impeccable as we’ve come to expect, led by Ben Whitehead eerily channeling the much-missed Peter Sallis as Gromit, and newcomers including Peter Kay as a useless police chief inspector, Lauren Patel as his eager-to-please PC and Diane Morgan as a punny local television newshound. Of course, the real star of the star of the show doesn’t even have a voice, with a tiny headshake or frown from Gromit communicating more than a hundred lines of witty dialogue ever could. Cracking Christmas treat, Gromit.

Five stars