Aardman has sought to reassure a traumatised populace after rumour spreads that their only clay supplier has shut up shop.
Where would we be as a nation without Aardman? Ever since A Grand Day Out shot a thumby, pun-filled rocket into our hearts in 1989, the stop-motion studio has remained as integral to the British psyche as Branston Pickle on a Wensleydale paving slab.
For a few terrifying hours this morning, however, the public were forced to imagine a country without our brightest stars when The Telegraph claimed the studio’s only clay supplier had shut up shop.
The consequences of such a disaster are hardly worth contemplating. Families huddled around a TV playing nothing but computer-animated static. A thousand Wallace And Gromit alarm clocks falling silent all at once. Legions of dust-stained workers glumly treading to the clay pits, desperately digging for the moldable gold they knew they would never again be able to find.
Imagine a world without Shawn The Sheep. A world where pirates go on adventures with other pirates rather than, let’s say, With Scientists. Where chickens do, in fact “want to be a pie”, and where the question “what is the origin of football, and does it have anything to do with a prehistoric pig” goes forever unanswered.
Now, stop imagining it, because Aardman has said it’s alright, actually. Here you go:
They had us worried for a second. Time for a nice cup of tea, Gromit.
