Wallace & Gromit is finally giving its titular dog a voice after 37 years of the clever canine silently humouring his owner’s mad schemes.
Gromit, who has famously never spoken in the claymation cartoon’s history, will be voiced by Sherlock actor Martin Freeman in an audiobook of his autobiography.
Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit is the first solo project to come from Gromit, who has silently starred in four short films, two feature-films and two animated series with cheese-loving Wallace from 1989 onwards.
The book, written by Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park, promises to be “the tale of what goes on behind [Gromit’s] eyes”, with the dog teasing: “I do know where all the bone are buried. So, I guess it’s time I spoke.”
Announcing Bafta-winning actor Freeman as the voice of Gromit’s memoir, Park said: “The more I thought about it, the more I realised Martin Freeman was the obvious choice, really. I was genuinely thrilled and honoured when he said yes.”
He added to The Guardian that Freeman does not put on “a Gromit ‘voice’ as such” for the audiobook. “He’s reading Gromit’s story as Gromit put it: his inner thoughts, his candid insights and endless witticisms, bringing to them his usual colour, thoughtfulness and wry humour,” he continued.
Freeman, 55, rose to fame as Tim Canterbury in BBC mockumentary The Office in 2001, before playing another constantly put-upon sidekick, Dr. John Watson, in 2010’s Sherlock opposite Benedict Cumberbatch.
He’s since headed to Hollywood, starring as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit franchise and taken on roles in Fargo’s TV reboot and Black Panther.
Wallace and Gromit last appeared on our screens in 2024 filmVengeance Most Fowl, which aired on the BBC on Christmas Day.
The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey gave it four stars at the time, describing it as “proof the traditional can still thrive”.
“Vengeance Most Fowl sees Aardman return to their tried-and-tested formula,” she wrote. “Yet, it’s also the source of the studio’s continuing brilliance – somehow, the familiar always feels new, and the craftwork never tires.”
Last month, puppets of Wallace and Gromit from the film were auctioned for studio Aardman’s 50th anniversary, with every lot starting at £100. A model of Wallace in his traditional outfit – a knitted green vest, a red tie and brown trousers – sold for £50,400, while one of Gromit went for £31,500.
Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit is out later this month.
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