Wallace and Gromit co-writer inspires students

Wallace and Gromit co writer inspires students Image

A BAFTA award winning screen writer of the Wallace and Gromit television series stopped off in Fareham to give students the tips of the trade.

Bob Baker, co-writer of the family favourite animation series, gave performing arts students some of the know-how of the industry.

The Fareham College students were told to persist in their writing skills by the 71-year-old Oscar award-winning writer.

He showed them the BAFTAs he won for his feature-length films, which tell the mishaps of cheese-lover Wallace and his pet dog Gromit, with animator Nick Park for The Wrong Trousers and A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Bob, who lives in Gloucestershire, even had a character named after him in A Matter of Loaf and Death – Bob the Baker.

“The Wrong Trousers was fantastic because I’d never written with Nick before,” said Bob. “It was a tremendous experience and we won an Oscar and BAFTAs for it.

“It was absolutely amazing. I was stunned and delighted by it all.

“I’m trying to encourage Nick to do another one but we’ll wait and see. It’s all down to him.”

The multi-award winning writer has been working with the students this week on their projects, along with his wife Marie, who has directed musicals and theatre productions at Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre. The couple have been sharing their vast experience through performing Shakespeare and providing a critical eye over the pupils’ work.

In giving advice to the students, he said: “The main thing is to start working on something and to keep sending it away. They should try to get their work on somewhere – whether on TV or a play – so they can hear it spoken because that’s important.”

Student Sianna Lane, 23, has been given the encouragement from the writer to develop her own play during his lessons.

“It’s about how he has created scripts onto film and how to develop our future careers,” she said. “Bob is helping me to create my own play.”

His other work has included writing for hit TV series Dr Who for 10 years and science-fiction comedy spin-off K-9, which he has been recently working on in Australia.

Short URL: http://www.wwgazette.co.uk/?p=8141

Wallace and Gromit co-writer inspires students