The evil penguin Feathers McGraw, who terrorised audiences in the 1993 Bafta and Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers, will return to play a central role in the Wallace and Gromit film series.
A teaser released on Thursday for the BBC’s Vengeance Most Fowl shows the villain’s fish keychain and keys, comb, tape measure and glove being put in a prison tray before he enters a cell while a guard looks and cracks his neck.
McGraw lived with the inventor and his trusty beagle when he rented a room in the original film, earning Wallace’s affections but causing Gromit to be made homeless. Disguising himself as a chicken with a red glove on his head, he used Wallace to try to steal a priceless diamond but was caught and unmasked by Gromit, before being arrested and incarcerated in a city zoo.
The penguin will return to try to gain revenge on his old enemies in the latest instalment.
Ben Whitehead, who has been in other Wallace and Gromit projects, will again play the eccentric, cheese-loving inventor from the north of England after taking over from the late Last of the Summer Wine actor Peter Sallis.
The comedian Peter Kay, who appeared in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, returns as PC Mackintosh who has been promoted to chief inspector, while Inside No 9 star Reece Shearsmith and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie actor Lauren Patel join the cast.
There will also be cameos from the Motherland actor and comedian Diane Morgan, the Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh and the comedian and actor Lenny Henry. It had been previously revealed that the film will feature the protagonist developing a “smart gnome” that appears to have a mind of its own.
Nick Park, the Wallace and Gromit creator and director of the new 70-minute film, said: “I’d had the idea of a film about garden gnomes turning bad for more than a decade, but I could never work out what made them bad.
“It occurred to me that the single most asked question I get when I meet fans is, will the penguin Feathers McGraw, Wallace and Gromit’s original antagonist from The Wrong Trousers 30 years ago, ever return?
“We’ve had fun bringing him back in cameo capacities but now, three decades on, it felt like the right time. Then it hit me: What if Feathers was involved with these gnomes? We’re hoping that this film will appeal to fans of Gnome Noir everywhere and that people will be gratified when they see what Feathers has been up to since The Wrong Trousers.”
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McGraw appeared briefly in the series Cracking Contraptions in a fictional TV show When Penguins Turn and in the game Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo.
Merlin Crossingham, creative director of Wallace and Gromit and director of Vengeance Most Fowl, said: “While we’d love to revive the enthusiasm across our existing fanbase, we also want this film to reach people who have never come across Wallace and Gromit before.
“Hopefully, Vengeance Most Fowl is full of everything people love about Wallace and Gromit while introducing new themes to their ongoing story.”
The Wallace and Gromit films have won three Oscars: The Wrong Trousers won the award for Animated Short Film in 1993; A Close Shave for Animated Short Film in 1995; and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit for Best Animated Feature in 2006.