"Gromit! I've got a bomb in my pants!" They are words that only Britain's favourite animated inventor could utter and they will be part of a Christmas treat when Wallace & Gromit return to television in their first small screen adventure for 13 years.

The pair's creator, Nick Park, has brought the 30-minute film A Matter of Loaf and Death to BBC1 after making two gruelling feature films, Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. "I felt I wanted to get my ideas out quicker and the 30-minute format is more humane," Park said at a preview screening yesterday. "The first film took seven years to film and this one took seven months."

The last made-for-TV film was the half-hour adventure A Close Shave, which aired on BBC2 in 1995. The BBC is expected to broadcast the new film on Christmas Day, though the festive schedule has yet to be announced.

The plot is familiar territory for fans of the pair, who find themselves the proprietors of a bakery. Wallace, the cheese-loving inventor, falls in love with Piella Bakewell, a physically imposing former face of a bread commercial, much to the consternation of Gromit. But the clever canine soon discovers that her arrival may not be unconnected with a spate of murders ... of fellow bakers.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2006 and its global popularity was one reason why the original title of the latest film, Trouble 't Mill, was discarded because the phrase would not be familiar to the show's fans outside the UK.

A Matter of Loaf and Death, described as "witty, charming and life affirming" by the BBC1 controller, Jay Hunt, is part of a BBC1 Christmas line-up including the Doctor Who Christmas special and a remake of the Hitchcock classic The 39 Steps, starring former Spooks star Rupert Penry-Jones.