CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Wallace & Gromit and a traditional Time Lord - the perfect Christmas gifts
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Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC1). Rating:. Doctor Who (BBC2). Butter me crumpets, lad! All this new technology is jolly clever, but you can’t beat the tried-and-trusted old favourites — whether that’s a Wellington boot or a classic story.
![[Animators and co-creators Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. A non-stop torrent of sight gags, puns and movie references cascaded out of every scene, to delight older viewers]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/26/00/93486281-14226539-image-a-100_1735172325127.jpg)
Our Plasticine hero Wallace and his loyal mutt Gromit returned in an 80-minute special that was essentially a remake of their best-loved adventure, 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, but with vanloads of extra gags. Vengeance Most Fowl saw them pitted once again against their arch-enemy, the penguin master villain Feathers McGraw, who was still intent on stealing a gigantic diamond. It was hidden in Wallace’s teapot at his home at 62 West Wallaby Street.
![[Nicola Coughlan was the star guest in the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was a comparably subdued affair]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/26/00/93486327-14226539-image-m-102_1735172394521.jpg)
Cunningly disguised as a chicken, with a red rubber glove for his coxcomb, Feathers broke out of his enclosure at a maximum security zoo with the aid of an army of garden gnomes, manufactured to the blueprint designed by eccentric inventor Wallace. Young viewers will have been held enthralled throughout by the excitement, as silent comedy star Gromit gave chase — first in a motorcycle with sidecar, then in a high-speed narrow boat — before a perilous confrontation on a canal viaduct.
A non-stop torrent of sight gags, puns and movie references cascaded out of every scene, to delight older viewers. I loved the news presenter, Anton Deck, and the nods to films such as The Magician’s Apprentice (as the gnomes multiplied) and The Italian Job (as the barge teetered on the brink of a sheer drop).
