Shaun (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is the protagonist of the series and the leader of the flock. Timmy (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher), full name, Timothy, is the flock's only lamb and thus often the innocent centre of the chaos. The 100-minute (1 hour and 40 minute) long musical/dance show features all the regular characters, including Bitzer, Shirley, and Timmy.

The farmer receives a huge power-electricity bill, and decides to build a wind turbine to power the house. Nuts (vocal effects by Andy Nyman) is quite an eccentric but useful sheep – and usually, like the rest of the flock, accompanies and helps Shaun.He gives Shaun the job of handling the daily chores around the farm, while sneaking off to raid the fridge and play video games. Shaun, Bitzer and the flock mount a mission to rescue him, and make peace with the pigs, which works. Unlike other shows made by Aardman Animations, the series was restricted in its ability to carry much-spoken dialogue, not even from the human characters, except for a few simple grunts, bleats, barks, growls, pointing, sighs, mutterings, and similar wordless inflections, which are used to indicate a character’s mood or motive. Shirley's snoring wakes everyone up, so Shaun decides that the only way to get a peaceful night's sleep is to get her out of the barn.

While things initially go as expected, Bitzer quickly goes completely over the top with his training regime and starts running the farm with military precision, driving everyone crazy. Timmy's mother (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) wears curlers in her topknot and is a bit careless about maternal duties, even using Timmy once as a makeshift paintbrush. But before the gang can get to swim, they need to see off a pair of fly tippers who have been filling the pond with rubbish. The series inspired the spin-off Timmy Time, a show aimed at younger viewers that follows Shaun's younger cousin. The Farmer gets ready for a date and wants to look his best, so he decides it is time to dust off his prized hairpiece.A second half-hour special titled Shaun the Sheep: A Winter’s Tale went into production in late 2020 and aired on Christmas 2021 on BBC One.

However, when Shaun and the flock decide to give it a go, they learn that it is not as easy as it looks. In Series 2, he desires to be the sole recipient of the Farmer's attention and thus is jealous of Bitzer.On 19 February 2020, it was reported that the sixth series of Shaun the Sheep, subtitled Adventures from Mossy Bottom, was released on Netflix on 16 March 2020 in Spain, Poland, Turkey, and UAE. A Blu-ray set, titled Shaun The Sheep: The Complete Series, is scheduled for release on 12 December 2023.