A four-foot-high bronze statue of Feathers McGraw, the villainous penguin character in the Wallace & Gromit animated films, was unveiled yesterday (February 20) in the Lancashire city of Preston – less than an hour away from Manchester. The statue was unveiled by Nick Park CBE, four-time Academy Award®-winner and Preston-born creator of Wallace & Gromit, close to the statues of his arch enemies, Wallace and Gromit. One onlooker shouted “arrest that chicken” to laughter as the statue was revealed.
Feathers McGraw appeared in the Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers and returned in a starring role in Vengeance Most Fowl, which premiered on BBC One on Christmas Day. Long thought to be a chicken, Feathers was exposed as a penguin when Wallace and Gromit foiled his plan to rob a museum of a precious diamond.
The Honorary Freeman of Preston and multi award-winning filmmaker Nick Park unveiled the statue as part of a ceremony to mark the opening of Animate, Preston’s new £45m cinema and leisure complex. Animate features The Arc Cinema with eight screens, 16-lane Hollywood Bowl bowling alley with gaming zone, public realm, a socialising unit and 164-space basement car park, alongside leading family restaurant brands Ask Italian, Cosmo, Taco Bell, Argento Lounge and a variety of street food outlets and a cocktail bar in Mad Giant Food Hall.
The silent criminal mastermind character Feathers McGraw stands outside Animate but ominously close to the existing Wallace and Gromit bronze statue bench at nearby Preston Markets, which was also opened by Nick Park in September 2021.
Joining Nick at the unveiling were the Mayor of Preston Councillor Philip Crowe, Chris Butler and Chris Jones, owners and directors of Castle Fine Arts Foundry, which created the statue, and Merlin Crossingham, Bafta@ award-winning creative co-director of Wallace and Gromit at Aardman Animations. Nick and Merlin are executive directors and creative directors, respectively, at Bristol-based independent studio Aardman, makers of the Wallace & Gromit films and other beloved brands, including Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, and Morph.
Nick Park CBE said: “As a proud Prestonian, I couldn’t be more ‘egg-cited’ to see our infamous Feathers McGraw joining Wallace and Gromit in my hometown. I’m not sure how happy Wallace and Gromit will be, though, to have their arch nemesis clutching the limelight.”