THEY have enthralled millions worldwide, brought Oscar glory to their British creator and done more for Wensleydale cheese than a thousand adverts.

But the next instalment of the extraordinary animated success story of Wallace and Gromit lies far away from Hollywood, in a small studio in County Durham.

The charming, cheese-loving duo have starred in three films to date: A Close Shave, A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers - hits which have propelled the odd couple to become the most popular animated characters outside the all-powerful Disney stable.

But with the next feature film, The Great Vegetable Plot, not scheduled for release until 2004, the only chance fans have to see their heroes in action will be in a series of 12 short films being released by Media Ideas, of Barnard Castle.

The company is releasing a CD-Rom which will allow fans to collect a dozen minute-long clips created by animator Nick Park - released once a week at various Internet sites.

Each clip shows the pair trying out one of Wallace's hapless inventions, including his new breakfast-television-toaster machine, an iron-o-matic and bowl-o-matic.

The team at Media Ideas was chosen because of its work on the hit Nick Park movie Chicken Run, and other collaborations between the Barnard Castle company and the Oscar-winning animator are now thought to be in the pipeline.

Geoff Dixon, who runs Media Ideas, said the project had been great fun to work on.

He said: "We were involved with Chicken Run and our involvement with this new movie album stems from that.

"Hopefully, fans of Wallace and Gromit will enjoy these new movie clips, and on top of that this is a fairly new way of promoting new material, because people can get hold of a CD Rom and access them free of charge from the Internet."

Mr Dixon added: "We are really pleased to have been involved again, following the success of Chicken Run, and, hopefully, fans won't be disappointed.

"There are other ventures on the horizon which we are working on and, hopefully, the company can continue to grow."

It is six years since the last feature-length Wallace and Gromit adventure was first screened and fans are expected to swamp the Internet site on which the films are available.

A spokesman for Aardman, the production company behind Wallace and Gromit material, said a new film is expected to be released in 2004.

The movie clips are scheduled for release this autumn.

The CD will be released free in national newspapers, and more information can be found on Aardman's website, at www.aardman. com.