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The Independent
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Wallace and Gromit superfan started 1,000-plus memorabilia collection with a pen
A Wallace and Gromit superfan who has more than 1,000 items of memorabilia has said she is 'really pleased' the 'amazing' franchise has enjoyed success through Baftas and a Feathers McGraw tattoo trend. Mel Harrison, 43, said she has been 'absolutely blown away' by all things Aardman since she was a child, with her first memory of the animation studio's creation Wallace and Gromit being the short film A Grand Day Out. The first memorabilia item she purchased was a Wallace and Gromit pen when she was about 14 using money from doing the paper round and she has since gone on to collect more than 1,000 items, admitting she has lost track of how much she has spent on them. 'I have lots of ornaments, I've probably got about 50 different mugs, there's kids' playsets, bubble baths…' Ms Harrison, who lives in Wormegay, Norfolk, told the PA news agency. 'I've collected a few of the Gromit Unleashed figures, I have car mats, I found a Wallace and Gromit frisbee the other day. 'There's so much stuff, they seem to be able to put Wallace and Gromit on anything.' Her most prized possession is a signed poster from Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park, which she received as a gift for her 16th birthday. Ms Harrison initially bought items from high street shops before switching to online sites including Vinted, Amazon and eBay, and they are largely kept in the loft or a room in her home. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl won in two categories at the Bafta Film Awards 2025 this month – animated film, and children's and family film. Ms Harrison said she was glad to see them receive the accolades. 'It wasn't surprising at all, I'm just really pleased that they got the credit they deserved,' she added. 'With the animation, it just blows me away how they do it all; it's just amazing and it's the humour – the humour is a big thing for me. 'You can watch the film 10 times or even 100 times and see something different every single time. 'I think they're loveable characters as well and how they can make a character like Gromit express so much without saying a word is just amazing.' Since the release of the latest Wallace and Gromit film at Christmas, there has been a growing trend for people to get tattoos of villainous penguin Feathers McGraw, and a statue of him has been erected in Preston, Lancashire. Ms Harrison, however, admitted she is not the biggest fan of the character. 'He's just quite an evil-looking figure, isn't he?' she said. 'I think it's his beady eyes that make him quite evil – I don't think he's one of my favourite characters to be honest.' Instead, the character she loves the most is Gromit and her spaniel, who died in November 2023, even shared the same name as Wallace's trusted best friend. On why she has an affinity for Gromit, she said: 'I think it's just the way he reacts to the things that Wallace does, I see a bit of me in him, like when he raises his eyebrows and I like that he shows so much emotion yet he doesn't talk. 'I always wanted a dog called Gromit and I finally got my spaniel, who I lost a year ago, and the expressions on him and Gromit matched. 'In Vengeance Most Fowl, Wallace said 'I can live without inventing, but I can't live without my best pal' and that line brought tears to my eyes as my Gromit was my world.' Her love of Wallace and Gromit has not gone unnoticed in her home town. 'We had a jubilee scarecrow competition in the village (in 2022) and I did papier-mache Gromit in the plane and then I had Wallace on top of the fence with a rocket attached to his back and since then, we've been known as the Wallace and Gromit house in the village,' she said. 'Then we had another festival at the time of the Olympics (in 2024) so I made Wallace and put him in Union Jack shorts to pay homage to movie The Wrong Trousers but with an Olympics spin, and then I had Feathers McGraw controlling him and Gromit was sitting there ready to beat up Feathers McGraw.' She added she would 'absolutely love to meet Nick Park for cheese and crackers some day'.
Telegraph
16-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Bafta Film Awards, review: Can the BBC really justify this snoozefest's primetime slot?
And the winner is… certainly not TV viewers. The Bafta Film Awards 2025 (BBC One) was a typically out-of-touch endurance test. If you managed to last the course without nodding off or feeling nauseous at all the gushing, you deserve a golden mask gong yourself. Broadcast not-quite-live from London's Royal Festival Hall, the 78th annual shindig promised A-list glitz, spectacular gowns and spicy gossip. Sadly, by the time it arrived on our screens, it was all backslapping, strained banter and bland platitudes. The sheen of glamour couldn't conceal the fact that this was essentially a corporate awayday with ideas far above its station. Presenter David Tennant – the first returning host since the Stephen Fry era ended in 2017, so he must be doing something right – wasn't afraid to get political in his opening monologue, calling President Trump a 'villain'. Cue whooping from the assembled thesps. The quip where he compared Trump to sleazy ghost Beetlejuice and demonic vampire Nosferatu was judiciously cut from the broadcast. Proceedings opened with a pre-show skit in which Dame Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Brian Cox, aka 'the gods of the Baftas', offered Tennant tips for his big night. The kilt-clad host arrived in the auditorium singing I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers and cajoling confused celebrities to join in. It made for a spirited and rousing introduction, even if there was sadly no sign of Tennant's adorable dog, Bark Ruffalo. Thereafter the pace sagged and the fun factor plummeted. The remainder of the 125-minute transmission was like wading through televisual treacle. The musical turns could hardly have had their fingers further from the pulse. Veteran boy band Take That crooned their 17-year-old hit Greatest Day (which features on the Anora soundtrack), while septuagenarian actor Jeff Goldblum's jazzy piano stylings accompanied the 'In Memoriam' section. Did nobody south of 50 answer the phone? Papal thriller Conclave led the pack with 12 nominations and duly scooped four baubles, including Best Film. It shared the flagship categories with awards-bait epic The Brutalist. Also a quadruple winner, the architectural marathon took home Best Leading Actor for Adrien Brody and Best Director for Brady Corbet. In one of the night's few surprises, Demi Moore expected Best Actress victory failed to materialise. The accolade instead went to Mikey Madison for screwball caper Anora. 'I probably should have listened to my publicist and written a speech,' she said. Well, yes, it might have been nice. Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain but wasn't there to collect it in person, eliminating another possibility of an entertaining acceptance speech. Best Animated Film and the night's new award, Best Children's & Family Film, were both rightly won by Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Celebratory Wensleydale all round. Let's just hope Feathers McGraw doesn't steal the trophy. Mexican musical melodrama Emilia Pérez, which derailed its own awards campaign with an unedifying social media scandal, picked up a pair of prizes: Best Film Not in English and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña. Director Jacques Audiard extended an olive branch to the film's disgraced star Karla Sofía Gascón, telling her 'my dear, I kiss you'. Naturally, this newsworthy nugget was left on the cutting room floor. Irish hip hop trio Kneecap won Best British Debut for their self-titled comedy. At least, they did when Selena Gomez managed to read the cue card. Director Rich Peppiatt said the Irish republican rappers were 'a movement' and 'everyone should have their language, culture and homeland respected'. He dedicated the award to 'everyone out there who's fighting that fight'. Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown went home empty-handed, although it was memorably described by Tennant as 'Mamma Mia! for middle-aged dads'. Bristolian beanpole Stephen Merchant delivered the night's funniest speech, denying that he was street artist Banksy and poking fun at Hollywood's tendency to recycle ideas. An edible popcorn bucket, seaweed caviar and a 'zero-waste root vegetable bhaji' were on the menu for the 2,000 VIP guests as the Baftas embraced sustainability. The BBC could join in by doing some judicious housekeeping of its own. The Corporation should consider either demoting this annual event to BBC Two or broadcasting it live, like almost every other major awards show. Airing on a two-hour delay seems ever more baffling in the social media age. The winners were all over the internet before this broadcast had even begun. As the gong-giving action unfolded, BBC One was showing an Antiques Roadshow repeat. Why the gap wasn't utilised to snip out some of the interminable walks to the stage, tumbleweed-worthy attempts at humour and endless thank-yous is a cinematic mystery. Does this self-indulgent luvvie parade deserve to man-spread over more than two hours of weekend primetime? Recent ratings of around 3 million would suggest not. One felt for Call the Midwife fans, forced to miss their weekly fix of wimples and wailing babies for an industry backslapping session which attracts half the viewing figures. Coverage of this prestigious but po-faced ceremony needs a serious overhaul. The tireless Tennant did his bit. Now it's time for Bafta and the BBC to do theirs.
