Tickets were going on sale today for a Wallace & Gromit show taking this year's special BBC Prom concert to a wider audience in Australia and England.

Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels, which takes place next spring, is billed as a family show with the audience invited behind the scenes as Wallace prepares to perform his Proms commission My Concerto in Ee, Lad.

As with the Prom, specially-filmed Wallace & Gromit animated scenes show the duo's backstage exploits as they prepare for the performance, with the audience being entertained meanwhile with classical favourites - this time including music by Mozart, Debussy, and Stravinsky. After the interval there will be a special screening of the multi-award-winning Wallace & Gromit film A Matter of Loaf and Death with the soundtrack performed live.

The music will be performed in Australia by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in England by the Aurora Orchestra.

Merlin Crossingham, the show's creative director, said: The concert dates and venues are as follows:

• Friday 8th February: The Plenary, Melbourne, 7.30pm
• Saturday 9th February: The Plenary, Melbourne, 11am
• Saturday 30th March: Brighton Dome, 2.30pm and 7pm
• Sunday 31st March: Hammersmith Apollo, 7pm
• Monday 1st April: Hammersmith Apollo, 2.30pm and 7pm

Tickets were being made available via this link for the Australian concerts, this link for the Brighton Dome performances, and this link for the Hammersmith Apollo ones.

The Wallace & Gromit BBC Prom (number 20 in the 2012 series) was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday 29th July.

A special Wallace and Gromit short has been created by Aardman Animations to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The one-minute film, called Wallace and Gromit's Jubilee Bunt-a-thon, took 30 people three months to make and will be shown at 14 National Trust properties. It starts with Gromit making bunting for National Trust locations and later shows the dog and Wallace scaling ladders to put the decoration up at a manor.

The duo's creator, Nick Park, said:
Tony Berry, the National Trust's visitor experience director, said:
The short will premiere at the following sites on Monday 4th June: Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge; Attingham, Shrewsbury; Basildon Park, Reading; Belton, Grantham; Beningbrough Hall, York; Castle Ward, Downpatrick; Felbrigg Hall, Norwich; Morden Hall Park, London; Springhill, Magherafelt; Penrhyn Castle, Bangor; Powis Castle, Welshpool; Tyntesfield, Bristol, and Wallington, Northumberland, and will be shown at Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire on Sunday 15th July.

Six images have been released, as shown here. For bigger versions, click on the thumbnails.


















For a behind-the-scenes look at the film's making click here. A teaser can also be seen below



The news comes following the announcement of a Wallace and Gromit Prom to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 29th July, which will include new animations showing the pair's backstage exploits in preparation for the premiere of Wallace's new Proms commission, My Concerto in Ee, Lad, as well as a screening of A Matter of Loaf and Death to a live orchestral soundtrack.