When we first sold the Wallace and Gromit shorts to America, people suggested we get rid of the strange British accents and put clear American voices on them, and we held out.

He was concerned about how the British accents would translate, and sometimes we rerecorded lines to make things clearer,

Americans like the British kind of quirkiness and the strange accent. They find it kind of cute or something, with a certain charm.

I'm always there at home thinking of Wallace and Gromit ideas.

But I think people see 'Wallace and Gromit' as something akin to an elderly couple. These two know each other so well. Nothing can split them apart.

I went back over the sketch books I'd filled at Sheffield for ideas and discovered Wallace and Gromit, except Gromit was a cat then. I made them into Plasticene shapes and started 'A Grand Day Out.' It took me longer than I expected.