The new episode of Dyer’s Daily is now available to stream and download on most podcast directories.
Jamie Dyer discusses Wallace and Gromit’s fourth short film A Close Shave, which first aired on the BBC in 1995.
Wallace and Gromit was created by Nick Park, and featured the voice of Peter Sallis (Last of the Summer Wine) as Wallace in the first five productions; A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995), Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008).
Stream this episode below:
Transcription:
So a close shave was the follow-up, the third in a trilogy of the Wallace and Gromit short films, and it’s possibly the darkest. Whereas (A) Grand Day Out is a kind of a light-hearted affair with that weird robot, um, which is sort of a deviation, then we’ve got, The Wrong Trousers with its kind of odd Hitchcockian vibe.
This is just all out thriller, isn’t it? With a lot of action sequences. The sheep, including the introduction of Shaun the Sheep, provide a lot of humour, the love story between Wallace and Wendolene, played by Anne Reid, the second voice to appear in Wallace and Gromit, It just has so many things, doesn’t it, and then the twist at the end, uh, with Preston the dog is extremely impressive and even now it is a marvel.
I love the fact that now it appears to have been made in widescreen at some point. Um, marvel, absolute marvel this film, so many things. I love that moment where Wallace, the window cleaner, one, he says the bounce has gone from his bungee, and the second, uh, when he says windows are his speciality, and then he walks straight into a window pane.
That to me as a kid was absolutely hilarious, and… Every moment, every scene, uh, except maybe Gromit being in prison, always seemed a bit odd, and watching it as an adult, I’m not quite sure, uh, where, who’s trying a dog for sheep rustling and stuff, this seems a bit odd, I mean, does a sheepdog not exist? anyway, when Shaun basically drills through the bars and stuff and the um, the motorbike chase at the end, I mean, this thing won an Academy Award.
It was the second for nick park and deservedly so! deservedly so! And I looked at the footage the other day of the Oscars and It was introduced by uh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a basketball player, and Jackie Chan. Yeah, um I hope they’ve seen it at some point, because this, this film, yeah, this film, it’s on iPlayer, uh, it is available on TV, it’s always on TV, it is a little bit darker than your usual thing, but how can you not resist something that introduced the world to the magic of Wensleydale and Shaun the Sheep?
ABOUT THE PODCAST: Jamie Dyer presents Dyer’s Daily, an off-the-cuff daily talk show podcast that discusses a number of media-related topics including television, film and music. Occasionally, Jamie gives his thoughts on topical events.
ABOUT THE HOST: Jamie Dyer started presenting on Radio in 2008, via Boston’s Stump Radio (Now Endeavour FM). His Radio credits include Teen FM, Spitfire Radio, Totally 80s FM, Angel Radio, 1Radio, One Radio, SouthWaves Radio and 1Focus Radio. He has also hosted syndicated shows including The Millennium Years, The Pop Show and The Jamie Dyer Show.
Jamie’s podcasts have included Nineties ‘n’ Noughties UK, Watching the Wireless, The Quo-Cast, The Week Before, SouthWaves Theatre and The Jamie Dyer Show.
