All Creatures Great and Small

Name: All Creatures Great and Small
Director: Stewart Svaasand
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2020
Cast: Samuel West, Nicholas Ralph, Anna Madeley, Rachel Shenton, Callum Woodhouse

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2020

Drama
Comedy

Summary

Adaptation of James Herriot's beloved books about life as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. Starring Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West and Diana Rigg.

Comfort and Joy

Summary

It's Christmas 1945, the first peacetime Christmas after the war and, with Helen feeling under the weather, it's fallen on James to take on the Darrowby Nativity play. That's not all that James has on his mind, as he fears it's the end of the road for Tricki's hopes of fatherhood and dreads telling Mrs Pumphrey, while Siegfried is back at Mrs Stokes' farm to see Hilda the goat, who's been up to more mischief. As the big day approaches, Mrs Hall becomes interested in the Drovers' darts competition, because the first prize is a turkey, and Maggie reminds Tristan that he's supposed to be supplying the Christmas tree

Review

David Brown

With the war only recently over, Darrowby is still more used to blackouts than fairy lights, so the opportunity to make Christmas 1945 feel extra special is ready to be seized. But events are conspiring against the Skeldale House regulars, thanks to lingering memories of battlefields, a national shortage of turkeys and Tristan forgetting to source a pine tree for the Drovers pub.

But this golden glow of a festive special reminds us that happiness can be wrested from what may appear the glummest of circumstances. And indeed, all that’s required is something as simple as a malapropism from a small child — in this case, young Jimmy saying “Hebden” instead of “Heaven” when playing an angel in the Nativity play — to lift everyone’s spirits.

Preceding tonight’s episode is a charming “making of” documentary, All Creatures Great and Small: behind the Scenes at 8pm, which is full of insights, the best of which must be the fact that the hoof knife used on set by Samuel West was the exact same one owned by veterinary surgeon Donald Sinclair, the real-life inspiration for Siegfried.

How to watch

Next showing

There are no live broadcasts scheduled for this show. But it is available via the streaming provider below.

Streaming

My5

Details

Released on

2020-01-01

Languages

Formats

Colour

Credits

Cast

rolenameJames HerriotNicholas RalphSiegfried FarnonSamuel WestMrs Audrey HallAnna MadeleyHelen HerriotRachel ShentonTristan FarnonCallum WoodhouseMrs PumphreyPatricia HodgeJimmy HerriotThomas RichesRosie HerriotIsabella WardCharlotte BeauvoirGaia WiseMrs StokesSusan HiltonBobby AinsleyRalph FalkinghamLucy AinsleyLibby FalkinghamMaggieMollie WinnardDorothyMaimie McCoy

Crew

rolenameExecutive producerColin CallenderExecutive producerMelissa GallantExecutive producerSharon MoranExecutive producerAlexis HoodWriterNeil JonesWriterDamian WaylingDirectorAndy Hay

Review

Alison Graham

It was only a matter of time before Channel 5’s audience-winning obsession with documentaries about Yorkshire vets and livestock was channelled into bankable drama. And what better than a reboot of the adored BBC Sunday-night hit based on Yorkshire Dales vet James Herriot’s autobiographical books. It’s charming, too, a genial slice of escapism back to a less complicated time. Nicholas Ralph is young James, a Glasgow lad deposited in the middle of rural Yorkshire to become assistant to brusque, brisk vet Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West). On the basis that there’s nothing more comfortable and comforting than the familiar, this surely cannot fail.