Wallace & Gromit will be honoured with the Special Recognition Award at the 30th National Television Awards, organisers announced, with a specially created film of the pair accepting the gong to be broadcast live during the ceremony on Wednesday night.
The awards will be presented live from London's O2 and shown on ITV1 and ITVX on Sept. 10. The claymation duo — created by Aardman Animations — will mark more than three decades of screen presence with an on-screen acceptance filmed from their fictional home on West Wallaby Street.
Joel Dommett, host of the National Television Awards, called the characters "part of our cultural DNA," saying generations have "grown up laughing at Wallace's madcap ideas and cheering for Gromit's quiet brilliance." He described them as a "very special" choice for the ceremony's milestone 30th Special Recognition Award.
The recognition follows a busy year for Wallace & Gromit: their feature film Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl premiered on Christmas Day and later featured on international awards circuits. The film's creators — Richard Beek, Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham — appeared on the red carpet at the Academy Awards in March with miniature statuettes of the smartly dressed clay characters. The movie also made a splash at the BAFTAs earlier in the year, winning Best Animation and the Children's and Family Film award, though it did not prevail in the Outstanding British Film category.
At this year's Oscars, the feature was nominated in the Best Animated Feature category but lost to Flow, a dialogue-free Latvian film that follows a group of animals trying to survive in a post-human, flood-affected world. The result prompted strong reactions from fans on X, with some posting messages such as "Wallace and Gromit should have won the Oscar! Rigged!" and "Wallace and Gromit was Robbed!" Creators and the film's team posed for photographers on the Oscars red carpet despite the outcome.
Key characters from the new film, including the villainous Feathers McGraw and robot gnome Norbot, have been part of the recent publicity, appearing with the production team at awards events. Aardman representations of the figures also appeared at the BAFTA red carpet, where fans and attendees commented on the characters' presence.
The National Television Awards' Special Recognition Award has previously been used to mark long-standing contributions to UK television and popular culture. For the NTAs' 30th edition, broadcasters and organisers framed the tribute as part celebration and part retrospective on the duo's place in British entertainment.
The ceremony will be broadcast live from the O2 Arena at 8 p.m. BST on Wednesday, Sept. 10, on ITV1 and via the ITVX streaming service.