All Creatures Great and Small

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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.

All Creatures Great and Small: Christmas Special

Summary

Skeldale House prepares for Christmas and Jimmy's first birthday, but everyone is rocked by news that Edward's ship HMS Repulse has been sunk. Mrs Hall has to endure an agonising wait, but when a young boy arrives at the surgery with an abandoned fox cub, she can't help feeling a connection with the animal. Meanwhile, Tristan is given an important Royal Army Veterinary Corps mission to source the best Yorkshire pigeons for a new breeding programme, for which Siegfried sends him to Enoch Sykes, a cantankerous pigeon fancier whose birds are having digestive problems. Festive episode of the drama, starring Samuel West

Review

David Brown

Having kept everyone at Skeldale House fed and watered for five series, Mrs Hall is long overdue a prominent storyline. So, it’s heartening to see actor Anna Madeley as the centre of attention in this year’s seasonal offering, despite the redoubtable housekeeper she plays being rocked by a worrying news bulletin. Fearing for the safety of someone close, Mrs Hall projects her concerns onto an abandoned fox cub, whose health is in jeopardy.

As is tradition, All Creatures features light amid the shade, and preparations are also in full swing for young Jimmy’s first birthday. AndTristan(Callum Woodhouse) finds himself forced to deal with a pigeon fancier (played by Victoria Wood stalwart Duncan Preston). Now, they only breed one type of veterinary client on this show: cantankerous and exasperated. And Preston’s character Enoch Sykes certainly isn’t breaking the mould. I suspect there’s a single flat cap in the costume department and it just gets passed on to whichever guest star turns up next.

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Cast

rolenameSiegfried FarnonSamuel WestMrs Audrey HallAnna MadeleyJames HerriotNicholas RalphHelen HerriotRachel ShentonRichard AldersonTony PittsJenny AldersonImogen ClawsonChristopher TaylorOwen PhillipsEnoch SykesDuncan PrestonMajor RobertsonAdam BestPaddy GraingerElliot FranzDugginsJake HaywardEthel TaylorBecky Simon

Crew

rolenameWriterJamie CrichtonDirectorBrian PercivalDirectorAndy HayProducerYvonne FrancasExecutive producerColin CallenderExecutive producerMelissa GallantExecutive producerSharon MoranExecutive producerDebbie O’MalleyExecutive producerSeb CardwellExecutive producerPaul TestarExecutive producerSusanne SimpsonExecutive producerRebecca EatonExecutive producerLouise PedersenExecutive producerDavid Swetman

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.