Wallace and Gromit fans, rejoice: the dynamic duo are finally heading back to screens.
For decades the role of Wallace was played by Peter Sallis. He was creator Nick Park’s first choice, and Park first wrote to Sallis offering the role in 1983. But Sallis died in 2017, leaving a void at the heart of one of Britain’s most loved animated duos.
So with a new Wallace and Gromit heading to our screens on Christmas Day, who is voicing the claymation madcap inventor? Step forward, Ben Whitehead. The actor is voicing Wallace for his first full-length feature film, the excellently-titled Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
It’s obvious that he’s excited about it. “I was 14 when A Grand Day Out came out in 1989," he told Radio Times about the role. "I was a huge fan and did a Wallace voice to entertain people. Not in my wildest dreams did I think that one day I’d 'be' him."
So who is he, and what should we know?
Unlike the London born and bred Sallis, Whitehead does have a connection to the North: his father is from Yorkshire (though Wallace and Gromit, of course, is set in Lancashire). But he was born in Cheshire in 1977 and trained to be an actor.
As a Wallace and Gromit fan, he grew up doing voices, accents and impressions – and when a friend in Bristol, who was working with Aardman, needed some actors to help cast the Were-Rabbit film, Whitehead jumped at the chance.
"I had to get down there in two hours. I don’t think I’ve hung up the phone that quickly before, and luckily I was in the West Country,” he told PA Media.
"It was a good example of why it’s important to stay in contact with your good friends and be in the right place at the right time. Your friends and contacts are so important to you as an actor."
That was in 2003, but Park clearly saw his potential: by 2005, he was Sallis’ understudy, and worked with him during the filming of Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
"I was complete nervousness when I first met Peter,” Whitehead told Radio Times. “In Were-Rabbit, Helena Bonham Carter played Lady Campanula Tottington and Peter chastised me when her cardigan fell off the studio chair and I didn’t notice. 'Why didn’t you pick it up?' 'I’m scared, Peter! I’m with two great actors here. I don’t know what to do!'"
In 2009, Sallis’ failing health meant that Whitehead became Wallace, full-time. "The important thing is not to be jarring, so people don’t hear a completely different voice," he explained.
And, as he told PA, he’s nervous about putting it out into the world.
"The most exciting thing is when you see your first bit of animation, where they have started filming and put your voice to it,” he said. “I was really nervous and excited because it was a big undertaking… it was a feature film, and you’re thinking, ‘God, am I doing it right?’ And you don’t have a cast of actors there with you to help you calm down when you’re feeling hysterical. It was a daunting prospect.”
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl airs on BBC One on Christmas Day
