Cracking!: Martin Freeman will finally give Wallace's silent sidekick Gromit a voice
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He has been staunchly silent through all manner of trials and tribulations for the best part of four decades.
But ever-loyal, eye-rolling Gromit is set to finally find his voice.
And, it transpires, the sidekick to bungling inventor Wallace sounds a bit like a Hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins actor Martin Freeman, 55, will voice Gromit for the audiobook edition of the character's autobiography.
Grand: The Autobiography Of Gromit will see the famously mute pooch 'tell' his story to Nick Park, the creator of the Wallace & Gromit claymation comedies, which began in 1989 with A Grand Day Out.
Park said: 'When you create a character who has no voice, what do you do when your publisher reminds you there'll be an audiobook?
'Who could possibly voice a character everyone feels they know but nobody's actually heard?
'The more I thought about it, the more I realised Martin Freeman was the obvious choice.'
He added: 'Martin is not doing a Gromit 'voice' as such. He's reading Gromit's story as Gromit put it; his inner thoughts, candid insights and endless witticisms, bringing to them his usual colour, thoughtfulness and wry humour.'
Gromit has been staunchly silent through all manner of trials and tribulations for the best part of four decades but he is about to find his voice
Bilbo Baggins actor Martin Freeman, 55, will voice Gromit for the audiobook edition of the character's autobiography
Wallace & Gromit is a claymation comedy franchise centring around Wallace, a good-natured bachelor inventor, and his dog, Gromit.
It consists of four short films, two feature films and several TV adaptations and spin-offs.
Freeman first found fame playing Tim Canterbury in The Office (2001-2003) and later starred as John Watson in crime drama Sherlock (2010-2017).
He is also known for playing a young Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy and he has portrayed Everett K Ross in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2016.
The audiobook edition of Grand: The Autobiography Of Gromit is out on October 22 and is available to preorder now.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.