A Close Shave

A Close Shave (1996) is Nick Park's claymation short you can watch online on iFILM. Half an hour of pure Aardman lunacy, with cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his silent dog Gromit running a window-cleaning round.

Wallace falls hard for Wendolene, who runs the local wool shop. Then sheep start vanishing across town, and poor Gromit takes the blame. Behind bars he goes. Meanwhile a runaway sheep named Shaun, a sinister robot dog called Preston and a rigged-up knitting machine pull the plot into glorious chaos. Peter Sallis voices Wallace, Anne Reid plays Wendolene.

Every frame was sculpted by hand, one plasticine pose at a time, and the film took the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Shaun the sheep proved popular enough to earn his own series later on. Stream A Close Shave (1996) online on iFILM.