Peter Lord auctions Morph for charity

Posted on 8 June 2017

Peter Lord, co-founder of Academy Award winning studio Aardman, modelled and auctioned off a Morph figure for £600 last night, with proceeds going to two mental health charities.

Headlining a York Festival of Ideas event, Peter Lord spoke about his illustrious career in animation and filmmaking as creator of Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run and The Amazing Adventures of Morph.

A total of £770 was raised at the event through the auction and a prize draw, with this divided between University charities Healthy Body, Healthy Mind and Mind Your Head.

Tribute to Peter Sallis

Prior to his event, Peter Lord paid tribute to Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace, who passed away this week.

He said: “It feels like the end of an era. Peter has been around since we started - he did the voice recording for Wallace when Nick [Park, Director] was still a student at film school.

“He was very generous with his time, he loved helping out a student and did the job with great tolerance and good humour. He was charming and gentlemanly, with a mischievous spark of humour.”

Peter Lord also stressed the importance of the arts in inspiring the next generation:

“The arts are profoundly important at all levels, from great big productions to small theatrical endeavours. They are important in themselves, full stop. For me, it makes for a good society to have a healthy arts scene.”

York graduate

Reflecting on his time as a student at the University of York, Peter said: “It’s wonderful to be back. I left in 1976, and it’s always a surprise to me every time I’m back. It’s changed a lot and I feel very warmly towards the University - I had a great time here.

“When I came to York I had no idea what I was going to do afterwards, and I approached University with a spirit of enthusiasm to learn and an optimistic belief that something good would turn up. And it did, so I’m still a big fan of that way of thinking.”

“The Festival of Ideas is such a great concept – to celebrate ideas. I think it’s really healthy to have all different branches of life coming together and I’m delighted to be here talking about my career in the arts. I hope it encourages people.”