Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl star on replacing Peter Sallis and honouring the actor's legacy

Throughout the '90s and 2000s, Sallis would continue to voice Wallace in each film as well as adverts and video games until he retired in 2012. He passed away on 2nd June 2017.

With Wallace & Gromit now back on screen for the first time since 2008's A Matter of Loaf and Death, Whitehead has now stepped up as the official voice of Wallace, leading the iconic pair's latest adventure, Vengeance Most Fowl.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Whitehead looked back on his start at Aardman Animations and how that led to his big break as Wallace.

"I've been working with Aardman since The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2003," he said. "I've had that time, and they've given me that time, to develop as a voice actor and as a voice for Wallace, which has been fantastic."

"I was Peter's understudy, initially," he added. "I didn't audition for the voice of Wallace at all. I just went in as a reading actor. It just so happened I could do the voice. So I focused on getting the voice right, and eventually, developed. It became less of an impersonation and more of a voice, which I think really helped."

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The trick for Whitehead was to honour what's come before, the Wallace that fans know and love, while still putting a unique spin on the character, making it his own.

"It's helped very much by Nick [Park] and Merlin [Crossingham], the directors, who just said to me, 'Look, the character's developing. So look at it that way. Your priority is to get the character right, to get the acting right. Worry less about hitting that exact voice match,' which was a great thing to hear. So I put my own spin on it."

"I tend to improvise a lot around things. I tend to come up with things, but less so on this project. Here, I've been more concerned about actually just getting the tone of what they want to say right."

Judging by the overwhelmingly positive reactions to Vengeance Most Fowl (including our own review which you can read right here), Whitehead and the rest of the team didn't just get it right – they made a crackin' good show of it, which led us to one last question of the utmost importance.

We all know Wallace's favourite cheese is Yorkshire Wensleydale, but what would the man behind the clay choose?

"It's a perfectly good question," says Whitehead. "I like a really strong vintage cheddar. It's perfect for me. I went and got some on the weekend and it was the best. A nice, lovely Somerset cheddar cheese. You can't go wrong."

There you have it. A crackin' choice indeed.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 6:10pm on Christmas Day.

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