Aardman got permission from Alan Titchmarsh for a tiny joke in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. More here.
Deep in the end credits for the latest triumphant Aardman production, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, there’s a list of special thanks. Most of the names are known best to the Aardman team, but there are a couple in there more recognisable to those of us outside the Top Secret Aardman Headquarters In Bristol (TSAHIB).
Ant and Dec for instance get a namecheck in there, presumably down to a terrific newsreader gag early in the new film. But then there’s Alan Titchmarsh in there too. For those outside of the UK, Titchmarsh is best known for his gardening and presenting work, having working on TV shows such as Gardeners’ World and Ground Force.
Before Christmas, we got to chat to Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl director Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, and quizzed them a bit on some of the names in their end credits. Specific to Titchmarsh, they revealed that they’d sought permission off him for a tiny gag that appears for barely a second in the new film. They acknowledged they didn’t have to get specific permission, but they’re nice people with manners. So they did, and Titchmarsh duly got both the nod, and one of his more leftfield IMDB credits.
Podcast | Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024), with Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham
But what was the gag? Well, this is where eagle-eyed Bluesky user John comes in. He did a terrific thread on Boxing Day of the many hidden gags to be found in the new Wallace & Gromit adventure, that you can find here. And eureka! Here’s the tiny little gag that get the Aardman folks ringing Alan Titchmarsh’s agent up.
As Film Stories denizen Ryan Lambie has just pointed out, this brief sight gag manages to reference British gardening TV and magazines, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, and vintage sci-fi magazine Galaxy. If you haven’t heard of the latter, there’s a sample cover below. The design of Gardens Of The Galaxy looks markedly similar, doesn’t it?
You can find John’s Bluesky thread here. And you can hear my podcast interview with Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham here.
The main attraction, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, is on BBC iPlayer in the UK, and about to hit Netflix elsewhere in the world.
