Bryan Cranston features in a new advert for Alzheimer's Research UK - created by the makers of Wallace and Gromit

Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston has confronted misunderstandings around dementia.

In a new advertisement for Alzheimer’s Research UK the actor uses an orange to get people thinking differently about the condition.

The video has been produced by Aardman Animations, who famously created Wallace and Gromit.

Cranston, who lost his mother Audrey ‘Peggy’ Sell to Alzheimer’s disease in 2004, is supporting the latest chapter in the charity’s award-winning #ShareTheOrange campaign.

“Alzheimer’s took my mother’s life, but our loved-ones hopefully could be saved from the same fate,” he said.

“With advanced scientific research, hard work and generous support, Alzheimer’s Research UK, one day, could make finding a cure a reality.”

The campaign urges viewers to share a short film on their social media channels to help get people thinking differently about dementia and challenge the enduring misconception that the condition is simply a by-product of age.

A recent YouGov survey commissioned by Alzheimer’s Research UK revealed that, when asked what they think dementia is and who it affects, just 23% of British adults specifically mentioned brain disease or degeneration.

At the centre of the two-minute film, which uses a blend of film, stop-motion and CGI animation, is an orange that gradually strips away to demonstrate how the diseases that cause dementia, most commonly Alzheimer’s, physically attack the brain.

Through damage caused by the disease, the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain – about the weight of an orange. The emotive film also follows the journey of a person’s life and shows the impact dementia can have on them, their memories, relationships and loved-ones.