Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC1)
Doctor Who (BBC2)
Butter me crumpets, boy! All this new technology is very clever, but you can’t beat the tried and tested old favorites – whether that’s a Wellington boot or a classic story.
Our Plasticine hero Wallace and his faithful mutt Gromit returned in an 80-minute special that was essentially a remake of their best-loved adventure, 1993’s The Wrong Pants, but with loads of extra gags.
Revenge Most Fowl once again saw them face their nemesis, the penguin master villain Feathers McGraw, who was still planning to steal a giant diamond. It was hidden in Wallace’s teapot in his home at 62 West Wallaby Street.
Cunningly disguised as a chicken, using a red rubber glove as a control comb, Feathers escaped from his enclosure in a maximum security zoo with the help of an army of garden gnomes, crafted according to the blueprint designed by eccentric inventor Wallace.
Young viewers will have been captivated by the excitement throughout as silent comedy star Gromit gave chase – first in a motorcycle with sidecar, then in a fast narrow boat – before a dangerous confrontation on a canal viaduct.
A non-stop stream of jokes, puns and movie references flowed from every scene, to delight older viewers. I loved the news presenter, Anton Deck, and the nods to films like The Magician’s Apprentice (as the gnomes multiplied) and The Italian Job (as the ship teetered on the edge of a steep fall).
New technology is smart, but it doesn’t beat classic favorites like the latest Wallace and Gromit adventure
Animators and co-creators Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. A non-stop stream of jokes, puns and movie references flow from every scene, to delight older viewers
For Wallace And Gromit fanatics, there were dozens of callbacks to storylines and jokes from previous episodes.
Wallace’s flying boots gave a whole new meaning to the concept of rebooting electronic gadgets. And funniest of all was the moment when evil genius Feathers spun around in a swivel chair to reveal himself petting a white seal pup on his lap, like Bond villain Blofeld with a cat.
Reece Shearsmith of Inside No. 9 did his demented best as Norbot the clever gnome, while comedian Peter Kay was a blundering police chief.
Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan was the star guest in Doctor Who, which was a subdued affair by the standards of recent Christmas specials – no musical spectacles, no mega-budget CGI backdrops and very little Disneyfication.
Nicola Coughlan was the star guest in the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was a similarly subdued affair
Instead, exploits took place in more traditional Time Lord fashion, usually taking place in a series of hotel rooms.
Coughlan, whose naked Georgian love scene was the talk of the internet this year, had enormous fun as an articulate young lady with a horror of breaking the rules. It was a relief, she admitted last week, to play a role she could watch with her family without blushing.
Her character was named Joy Almundo, or “Joy to the World,” and she eventually went supernova as a poinsettia.
But it was Ncuti Gatwa as the doctor who shone brightest. He has the best winning grin since Tom Baker.