After their bigscreen outing in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Aardman Animation's plasticine man and dog duo return to the small screen for their next escapade. According to Variety, Nick Park's Trouble At' Mill starts shooting in January and will air on BBC1 over the Christmas 2008 period.

Trouble At' Mill will be 30 minutes long, the same as previous Wallace and Gromit TV favorites The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.

The film sees the pair open a bakery business before Wallace becomes sidetracked by a love interest, Piella Bakewell. With his master distracted, Gromit is left to solve a murder.

"I love making films for the cinema but the production of Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit were virtually back to back and each film took five years to complete, Trouble At' Mill will be so much quicker to make and I can't wait to get back into production," commented Park.

Park continues, "It's nice to be out of that feature film pressure now. I don't feel like I'm making a film for a kid in some suburb of America - and being told they're not going to understand a joke, or a northern saying. I'm making this for myself again and the people who love Wallace and Gromit."

Fans will be able to keep up to speed with the progress of Trouble At' Mill via regular video blogs from Aardman crew, which will be posted throughout the production process on the Wallace & Gromit Homepage.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won the 2006 Oscar for Best Animated Feature.