Wallace and Gromit return to TV

A pre-production drawing of Gromit in action (Aardman 2007)

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."

Shooting starts in January at Aardman studios in Bristol.

Trouble At' Mill is a murder mystery that sees Wallace and Gromit running a bakery business - with their house converted into a granary with ovens and robotic kneading arms.

Hollywood 'pressure'

In pictures: Wallace and Gromit sketches

It also introduces a new love interest for Wallace - bread enthusiast Piella Bakewell.

The new film will reunite Nick Park with writer Bob Baker who co-wrote both The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.

It is the first outing for Wallace and Gromit since The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2006.

Mr Park said he was looking forward to making a short film after the pressure of a Hollywood feature.

I'm making this for myself again and the people who love Wallace and Gromit Nick Park

"I love making films for the cinema but the production of Chicken Run and Curse of the Were-Rabbit were virtually back to back and each film took five years to complete," he said.

"This one we're making for the BBC. It's going to be a seven or eight-month shoot. That's faster than we've ever done it before," he told the BBC News website.

"It's nice to be out of that feature film pressure now. I don't feel like I'm making a film for a kid in some suburb of America - and being told they're not going to understand a joke, or a northern saying.

"I'm making this for myself again and the people who love Wallace and Gromit."

A video interview with Nick Park about Trouble At' Mill can be seen at www.wallaceandgromit.com.