All Creatures Great and Small star teases "joyful carnage" for Christmas special with nativity twist and Helen's return

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Filming a Christmas special in the summer might not sound particularly festive, but for Nicholas Ralph, who plays James Herriot, and the rest of the All Creatures Great and Small cast, the Skeldale House set in July is “like an immersive experience”.

“The set is decorated incredibly and everyone’s dressed up, so it really does get you in the festive spirit – and they’ve also got AC on in there, so even if it’s 30 degrees outside, it doesn’t feel it,” Ralph tells Radio Times. “Sometimes they’ll even do Christmas lunch for you, so you do get transported.”

It’s 1945, the first peacetime Christmas after the war, which comes with its own challenges for everyone. “There’s a pressure to have the best Christmas ever, for everything to be perfect,” says Ralph.

“But God, the enormity of it is not just going to go away overnight. It’s not all singing and dancing and everything’s merry all of a sudden. So, there is the joy of Christmas, but there’s also the pathos, people are still struggling.

“It’s very truthful, it’s not twee. But it’s still steeped in those wonderful Christmassy themes, along with the fun and the capers.”

One such caper is the Nativity. With Helen out of action after being struck down with a lurgy, it’s the vet’s responsibility to wrangle the children and get them performance ready. (James’s son Jimmy plays an angel who comes down from “Hebden”, as opposed to Heaven.)

“It was joyful carnage,” Ralph says with a smile. “The director, Andy Hay, just let a camera roll while the kids improvised. Then we put the animals in, and that just added to the chaos.

“James is on the back foot anyway because he’s said to Helen he’ll take over the writing and directing and producing – and when I walked into the room there was absolute chaos going on, so there was no acting required, really.”

For Ralph, it brought to mind his own experience of the Nativity. “I was about five years old, and I was Joseph” – his leading-man status was clearly there from the beginning. “Proper tea towels on the head, a little plastic mallet and saw, and some very funny, bad but cute acting.”

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And despite Helen being confined to her bed, actor Rachel Shenton returned to set, after missing part of the last series due to pregnancy, with her newborn Orson in tow.

“Her trailer had never been so busy,” said Ralph. “People were desperate to say hi to the little man. And it was great to have the character of Helen back. We’ve got some lovely warm, cosy scenes between her and James, which we’d missed.”

“It’s about love and kindness across the board this year – for one another, for the animals, and for your little pocket of the world,” adds Ralph. “Those are universal themes... and this one’s not short of those.”

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