Shaun the Sheep fans will have enjoyed spotting a cameo from the farmer of Mossy Bottom Farm in recent outing Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, a film that also included an even briefer cameo from a version of Gromit that’s older than most of the audience would have been.

It's been 16 years since the franchise's last short, A Matter of Loaf and Death, and 19 since its first feature film, the Academy Award–winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. That's a long time to be apart from two of Britain's greatest treasures.