‘Replacing the legendary Peter Sallis in Wallace and Gromit was very daunting’

Ben Whitehead has taken on the role of Wallace (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Wallace and Gromit are back this Christmas with their first film in 1t years.

The cheese-obsessed inventor and his sidekick return to the BBC in Vengeance Most Fowl, which marks the first full length project without the late Peter Sallis.

The veteran actor, who died aged 96 in 2017, voiced first voiced the character in 1989’s A Grand Day Out, reprising the role in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave two years later.

He was at the helm for Wallace and Gromit’s feature length debut (2005’s Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and 2008’s A Matter of Loaf and Death, but by 2010 he stepped down as his eyesight began to fail.

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

‘Very daunting, I’d say,’ Ben exclusively told Metro about his first Wallace and Gromit film in the title role. ‘But I didn’t show it so much, because I was turning up so excited for every single recording session.’

Peter Sallis died aged 96 in 2017 (Picture: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock)

The actor pointed out that ‘self doubt’ exists for everyone at some point, but as a performer ‘you just sort of get on with it’.

Despite working alongside Sallis and being close to the Last of the Summer Wine actor before his death, Ben didn’t ask for advice on playing Wallace once he started taking over the part.

‘Respectfully, I didn’t do that. Getting this role meant so much to Peter, while he wasn’t able to do some of the sort of the work that was put out there in the computer games,’ he said.

‘I remember him saying that they were difficult for him to do, the macular degeneration that he had, just as far as seeing the scripts is concerned.’

Wallace has a new voice but fans might not noticed the difference (Picture: Netflix via AP)

Ben thought it might have been ‘disrespectful’ to essentially ask ‘how do I try and fill your shoes?’

‘I worked with him on Were-Rabbit. But no, it wasn’t a case of, “Can you give me some pointers?”,’ he recalled.

‘You could come to the conclusion that you’re never going to! Peter’s a fantastic actor, trained at RADA, I trained at the London Dungeon. We come from very different backgrounds!’

Peter was forced to step down from the role due to ill-health (Picture: Joanne Davidson/REX/Shutterstock)

While he had a script to stick to which dictated his performance, Ben was still give a ‘freedom’ to make the character his own without being tied to what came before.

‘Physically, the character’s changed so much since Grand Day Out, you look at the animation of that character there and how to read it, and it’s pretty much changed with every project,’ he pointed out.

‘There’s been a small, slight physical change in the actual character of Wallace [in each film]. So the director told me that actually, there’s going to be a development, there’s going to be a change.’

Wallace has changed physically since A Grand Day Out in 1989 (Picture: BBC)

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

‘”It’s not about just hitting that impersonation, not about just getting the voice match,”‘ he recalled being advised. ‘”Bring your character into it, putting whatever you can into it.”‘

Whitehead recalled the first time he read the script, realising that the film ‘had potential to be the best Wallace and Gromit’ of all time.

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

Feathers McGraw and Gromit are both mute (Picture: Netflix via AP)

‘Wallace doesn’t really have much interaction with many other characters that speak,’ he chuckled. ‘It made it more focused. And I needed that, for sure. Because I’ll wander around with my voice anyway – but with this particular project, much less.’

It was a fantastic experience for a lifelong Aardman fan, but he knows once day in the future, there’ll come a time for another actor to take on the mantel.

‘There’s someone out there now thinking, “Well I’m going to take over from them”. So be respectful,’ he said of his outlook following on from Sallis. ‘But at the same time, I’m really happy that the character has that longevity!’

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