The secret to TV’s most terrifying villain – Wallace and Gromit’s Feathers McGraw-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro

Feathers McGraw is back in Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Picture: Aardman Animations)

This Christmas, one of TV’s most feared villains returns to the small screen.

For a generation, an innocent looking penguin is the embodiment of pure evil, and Feathers McGraw is back in Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

The sinister bird – who first appeared in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers – plays a big role in the feature film airing on Christmas Day, and creator Nick Park is delighted to have him back for the new feature length film.

‘You’ve got to love your villain as much as the other characters, definitely,’ he exclusively told Metro.

Plenty of people up and down the country know just how scary Feathers can be – including new Wallace and Gromit star Lauren Patel, who grew up loving all things Aardman.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie actress Lauren, who voices PC Mukherjee in the new film, admitted: ‘This silent, non-blinking penguin, man. I’m terrified of him!

Lauren Patel, who voices PC Mukherjee, was terrified of Feathers (Picture: BBC/Aardman Animations/Richard Davies/Stuart Collis)

Lauren has been a fan of Aardman for years (Picture: Dave Benett/WireImage)

Feathers plays a big role in the new film – but how do they make him so evil? (Picture: Aardman Animations)

‘Genuinely – I met him, and that’s helped, because he was only about this big when I met him, but he still sent a little shiver down my spine. It was very scary.’

There is a real method to the madness, as Nick and his co-director Merlin Crossingham opened up about how they make such a silent, still character so unnerving.

‘He’s kind of expressionless, and the way he moves – which is really established by Steve Fox on The Wrong Trousers, Steve Box animated Feathers and established that inner strength,’ Merlin explained.

‘We’ve really not changed him. We’ve carried him on. And he is challenging to animate because he doesn’t move – and actually, animators love moving things. That’s the reason for being animators!’

Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham put a lot of thought into Feathers (Picture: Vianney La Caer/Deadline via Getty Images)

Nick insisted: ‘The power of subtlety is something that can easily be grossly underestimated.’

‘The power of using the camera and the sound and just taking inspiration from that,’ Merlin agreed, as music plays a vital role in Aardman Animations making Feathers as evil as he is on screen.

‘That took a while to arrive at actually – Cape Fear with penguins,’ Nick admitted.

He explained: ‘Music is that thing you’ve hit on before, without expression. Sometimes it’s just the music, the audience fill in the gap of that – something’s going on in Feathers’ head. He’s formulating some plan.’

Feathers is unusually expressionless for an animated character (Picture: Aardman Animations)

He’s also a master of disguise (Picture: Aardman Animations)

Despite film fans frequently branding the flightless plasticine bird as pure evil, he’s a firm favourite with viewers – including Lauren, who even had a stuffed toy of her future co-star.

‘Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run – I had the Creature Comforts DVD on my portable DVD player, I had a Feathers McGraw stuffed toy,’ she beamed. ”I’ve tried for the life of me find it, but I have no idea where it’s gone, but I remember so vividly having it as a kid.’

She was ‘genuinely starstruck’ getting to meet the characters during a ‘proper, full tour of the studio’ while Vengeance Most Fowl was in developments.

She said: ‘Getting to see Wallace and Gromit and meet all of the incredible animators whose fingerprints are literally all over this film, and just a little window into how it is made and the time and the care and the effort that goes into it and the talent was an indescribable privilege.’

Norbot’s movements are ‘very strict’, just like Feathers (Picture: BBC/Aardman Animations/Richard Davies/Stuart Collis)

For their latest film, Nick and Merlin took inspiration from Feathers when it came to making sure the newest character Norbot – a smart gnome invented by Wallace – was brought to life in the right way.

‘It’s all to do with how [Wallace] stands, his posture, his demeanor. Same with Gromit, and Feathers. Of course he’s more strict, it’s very strict with Feathers and Norbot himself,’ Nick explained.

‘He’s just a small little puppet that we we spent a lot of time just establishing exactly how he moves, because he’s a robot. But if he was totally robot, it might become distracting. There’s a kind of humanity in him as well.’

Wallace and Gromit have plenty to deal with in Vengeance Most Fowl (Picture: BBC/Aardman Animations/Richard Davies/Stuart Collis)

And with Feathers making his comeback, they were determined to stay true to the character.

‘We’ve wanted to keep the mystery of him, where you don’t really know – it’s the story that escalates, Feathers is pretty much the same,’ Nick explained. ‘But this time, I mean, it’s 30 years on, and he’s back, and he’s bitter, and he’s out for revenge.’

Merlin added: ‘Still a badass penguin!’

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day.

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