I always forget just how great the Wallace and Gromit films are. They tend to get pegged by my mind as being rather twee and obvious until I rewatch one of their adventures and remember that Aardman’s efforts are, in fact, nothing short of mini masterpieces.

After the superb Curse of the Were-Rabbit, A Matter of Loaf and Death marks the return of Wallace and Gromit to the half-hour format – what creator Nick Park describes as a “homecoming”.

This time the genial inventor and his canine pal are running a bakery named Top Bun – at a time when a serial killer is picking off bakers. When Wallace falls in love with Piella Bakewell, the plump former star of ‘Bake-O-Lite’ commercials, Gromit becomes suspicious about her motives…

It’s another superb effort from Aardman Animations. Park and his appropriately named co-writer Bob Baker keep the narrative deceptively simple, but – as you’d imagine in something that takes so long to put together – not a single second of screen time is wasted. The plot hilariously sends up the convention of Hitchcockian thrillers and romantic dramas, but it’s mainly used as an excuse to simultaneously poke fun at and celebrate provincial British life – a life where any crisis can be diffused with a nice cup of tea.

There’s also the usual array of exhilarating set pieces (the duo rescuing a dog from the jaws of a crocodile, a frantic finale), groan-worthy puns (‘Cheesy Jet’, ‘McFlea’. ‘Poochini’) and quite brilliant attention to detail.

At the centre of all this mayhem are the relentlessly kind-hearted Wallace (with new endearing turn of phrases such as “My little short crust”) and the ever put-upon Gromit, complete with perma-frown and pleading eyes.

The unassuming Nick Park and Peter Sallis appeared at the end of the screening clutching models used in the actual filming and briefly took a few questions. Park revealed how, after the daunting task of their last full-length movie, a return to the half hour format seemed “more humane somehow”. He went on to describe how this one took seven months to film (with an animator obtaining around three seconds of footage a day), though that kind of paled in significance to the seven years it took to create A Grand Day Out.

Park told us that A Matter of Loaf and Death was completed too late to be considered for the 2009 animated short category but could be eligible for 2010 - before Sallis recalled being locked out of the 2007 Oscar ceremony along with Mickey Rooney!

When questioned on whether any celebrities had ever asked to lend their voices to the show, Park revealed that Mark Hamill was “very keen” (though he didn’t elaborate as to whether the former Jedi would appear in any future Aardman outing).

Finally, when asked about future projects, Park said he was going to take some much-needed time off, but did divulge that Peter Lord will be helming an upcoming “Python-esque” animated feature entitled Pirates.

A Matter of Loaf and Death airs on BBC One over the Christmas period.