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.

If you respect the audience enough, they can take onboard many things.

Get out and make films. There are so many cameras now to suit any budget, so there are no excuses.

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

Gromit was the name of a cat. When I started modeling the cat I just didn't feel it was quite right, so I made it into a dog because he could have a bigger nose and bigger, longer legs.

Like my father, I would never as a child throw anything away, keeping old toys, electric motors and bits of broken machines under my bed in what I called my Box of Useful Things.

My father, an architectural photographer, was an incurable tinkerer, maker and mender.