Wallace and Gromit I’m back Christmas with their first film in 1 year.

The cheese-obsessed inventor and his sidekick return to BBC In Revenge most birdswhich marks the first full project without the late Peter Sallis.

The veteran actor, who died at the age of 96 in 2017first voiced the character in A Grand Day Out in 1989, reprising the role in The Wrong Pants in 1993 and A Close Shave two years later.

He directed the first feature film of Wallace and Gromit (Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005) and that of 2008. A question of bread and deathbut in 2010 he resigned as his eyesight began to fail.

He retired from acting two years later with Ben Whitehead, 47, taking the role, himself an Aardman veteran who was also in the cast of Were-Rabbit.

“Very intimidating, I would say,” Ben told exclusively to Metro about his first film Wallace and Gromit in the title role. “But I didn’t show it much, because I was so excited at every recording session.”

The actor noted that “self-doubt” exists for everyone at some point, but as a performer, “you kind of get used to it.”

Although he works alongside Sallis and is close to the actor from Last Summer Wine Before his death, Ben did not seek advice on playing Wallace once he began taking on the role.

“Respectfully, I didn’t do that. Getting this role meant so much to Peter, even though he wasn’t capable of doing the kind of work offered in computer games,” he said.

“I remember him saying it was difficult for him to do them, because of the macular degeneration he suffered from, in terms of seeing the scripts.”

Ben thought it might have been “disrespectful” to essentially ask “how can I try to fill your shoes?”

“I worked with him on Were-Rabbit. But no, it wasn’t about “Can you give me some advice?” “, he remembers.

“You might conclude that you will never succeed!” Peter is a fantastic actor, trained at RADA, me at London Dungeon. We come from very different backgrounds!

Even though he had to stick to a script that dictated his performance, Ben still had the “freedom” to make the character his own without being tied to what came before.

“Physically, the character has changed so much since Grand Day Out, you look at the animation of that character and the way you read him, and it’s pretty much changed with every project,” he pointed out.

“There was a little, slight physical change in the actual character of Wallace (in each film). So the director told me that actually there’s going to be an evolution, there’s going to be a change.

Whitehead, who recorded in a booth with creator Nick Park, his co-director Merlin Crossingham and a script supervisor, was asked to bring as much of himself into it as he wanted.

“It’s not just about impersonation or getting a voice match,” he recalls. “Bring your character into it, putting everything you can into it. »

Whitehead remembers the first time he read the script, realizing that the film “had the potential to be the best Wallace and Gromit” ever.

When he started rehearsing and putting things together, he saw a hand-drawn animated storyboard, and being there with such a small team was a major advantage.

“Wallace doesn’t really have a lot of interaction with a lot of the other talking characters,” he laughed. “It made him more focused. And I needed it, that’s for sure. Because I’m going to walk around with my voice anyway – but with this particular project, much less so.

It was a fantastic experience for a long-time Aardman fan, but he knows that one day in the future there will come a time when another actor will take over.

“Now there’s someone who’s like, ‘Well, I’m going to take over from them.’ So be respectful,” he said of his views following Sallis. “But at the same time, I’m really happy that the character has this longevity!”

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