A Grand Day out for Nick

Nick Park is animated. He’s talking about inspiring the next generation to follow in his footsteps from shy Preston schoolboy to multi-Oscar winning filmmaker.

It’s a timely discussion given where he is sitting.

The Harris in Preston has just undergone a £19m transformation and sits at the heart of the city’s culture-led regeneration drive.

Proud Prestonian Nick is here to officially open the revamped museum and library, as well as a fascinating exhibition of his creative work.

Among other things, it explores his early life growing up in the city and its influence in the birth and development of his internationally loved creations,
Wallace and Gromit.

The 66-year-old filmmaker and animator believes there are opportunities for Lancashire’s young creatives to make their mark. And in a phrase that might have
come from the mouth of his plasticine hero Wallace, he advises: “Just have a crack.”

The four-time Academy Award winner says: “In my day the film industry seemed a million miles away. I never dreamt of working in the creative industry because it wasn’t on the radar of job opportunities or career choices.

“However, I was lucky enough to have parents who said if you have got something, follow it.”

Warming to the theme he adds: “I’d say just have a go. Today you can get apps on your smart phone and computer to make films.

“Get creative and have a crack at it. Have an idea that’s not too big. Make a lot out of something small, not the other way around. That’s what I did with Wallace and Gromit.

“I never envisaged it becoming as big as it is today. I just dreamt of creating characters. I was inspired watching a documentary about Disney, and the drawing of a mouse character. I went away thinking, ‘I’m going to make my own characters’.”

He adds: “The exhibition here shows how I started with nothing but a little standard eight cine-camera and a lump of plasticine.

“The potential today is even greater. Kids have access to computers and devices. There are apps on their smart phones they can use to do animation, not just traditional stop-motion methods. And then there is AI and AI is going to bring endless possibilities.”

He adds that it is important not to get discouraged by setbacks. “The first film I ever made, at home in my parents’ attic, I sent it off to Kodak and it never came back.”

The role of creativity is important to him. Following his appearance in Preston, he’s heading to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. There he will be one of a host of representatives from across the cultural and creative sector, showcasing its transformational impact.

The gathering – described as “an extraordinary moment of collaboration” – has been organised by Creative UK to explore how “creativity can offer the answer to some of the country’s social and economic challenges.”

The message being taken to Merseyside is clear: the creative sector is one of Britain’s biggest assets – a huge economic driver that cannot be overlooked.

Nick’s slot will see him reflecting on the value of creativity, the making of an iconic British brand, and the challenges facing creatives today – including IP protection in the age of AI.

But for today the focus is on his relationship with his home city. Earlier in the year Nick was in Preston to open Animate, the city’s new £45m-plus entertainment and leisure destination. It is another key part of the Harris Quarter masterplan.

Statues of his most famous characters Wallace and Gromit and their sworn enemy Feathers McGraw sit nearby and have become popular visitor attractions.

Preston North End run out to the theme tune of the Wallace and Gromit films at Deepdale on match days and down the road in Blackpool the pair’s Thrill-O-Matic ride is one of the Pleasure Beach’s most popular.

Nick is genuinely overwhelmed by the reception given him by his home city and the exhibition of his work, describing it as “incredibly moving.”

Over the past 35 years Wallace and Gromit have become much loved national treasures.

Together, they have appeared in The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and had their own night at the Proms. They have gained fame and popularity all around the world.

Their latest appearance came with feature-length production Vengeance Most Fowl, which premiered on the BBC on Christmas Day last year. It earned another Oscar nomination and won two BAFTAs.

Wallace and Gromit also scooped the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards in September this year.

They have become big business. The 2005 film ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ reportedly grossed approximately $190m worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film at the time.

Aardman also has licensing deals for Wallace and Gromit in a wide range of categories.

Nick explains how Preston and his childhood days have always helped to inspire him in their creation. As if to underline that point, he’s sitting in a replica of Wallace and Gromit’s sitting room, its look and feel drawn from his grandma’s lounge when he was a schoolboy.

Some of his earlier work, created in his parents’ attic in Walmer Bridge, adorn the exhibition walls.

The exhibition, ‘Wallace & Gromit in A Case at the Museum’, runs until January.

Visitors will see original sets and models as well as behind-the-scenes magic.

The Harris was a regular destination for young Nick, who went to school and sixth form college in the Preston suburb of Fulwood before heading to polytechnic in Sheffield and on to the National Film and Television School, where he started
making the first Wallace and Gromit film.

He says: “I was a quiet, shy kid. As a boy growing up in Preston, The Harris was always a focal point. I came here often, scouring the library all the time for anything on animation.”

Nick was also inspired by Leo Baxendale, the legendary Preston cartoonist who created the Bash Street Kids, much loved by the young readers of the Beano comic in his 1960s childhood.

He says: “You could see the influence of Preston in his work, the houses he drew, things like that.”

Artist Bryan Talbot, who worked on the famous Judge Dredd comics and is the creator of award-winning graphic novels, also studied in Preston, when its university was known as The Harris College.

Nick says: “There’s quite an artistic tradition from here.” Does the area make enough of that? “Probably not,” he replies, though he adds that the city’s university has a “very active” animation course.

Nick joined Aardman Studios in Bristol in 1985 and is an executive director. The business became an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in 2018.

All his work is created and produced in the south west of England but he and his wife Mags also have a home in a country village to the north of Preston.

“I spend a lot of time up here,” he says. “Where we are has lots of sheep and lovely wildlife.”

Looking ahead Nick says: “The studio is very active; we’re just starting to shoot
a new Shaun the Sheep movie.

“We’re developing ideas all the time, various short films and longer formats
for cinema and streaming.”

He is showing no signs of slowing down. But what of Wallace and Gromit? Nick says: “It may take time for another Wallace and Gromit, I don’t know. There are always ideas and I hope we’ve not seen the last of them yet.

“They are such a big part of my life, I talk to them in my sleep.” Do they answer back is the obvious follow-up question. “When I eat enough cheese they do,” is the very Wallace like reply."