The beloved series All Creatures Great And Small has been revamped with a new cast.
Creature comforts All Creatures Great And Small, the TV series based on James Herriot’s tales about the life of a Yorkshire vet, has been given a reboot. Jim Maloney reports.
The tales of a Yorkshire vet in the 1930s have delighted readers of James Herriot’s charming books for decades.
In 1975 there was a film adaptation, called All Creatures Great And Small, based on the first two books, If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn’t Happen To A Vet, starring Simon Ward as Herriot and Anthony Hopkins as Siegfried Farnon.
The subsequent TV series was one of the most successful and enduring of small-screen dramas, starring Christopher Timothy as Herriot, Robert Hardy as the eccentric older vet Siegfried, and Peter Davison as his younger brother, Tristan, across seven series from 1978 to 1990. Now All Creatures Great And Small has been remade for a new generation of viewers and we were invited on set to meet the cast and to take a look behind the scenes. Filmed in picturesque Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales with interior shots done in nearby studios, Siegfried’s ‘home’ is like stepping back in time. The kitchen, where many scenes take place, has a large wooden table in the centre, a butler’s sink and
an old stove. Shelves carry such items as an old-fashioned bottle of furniture cream, a scrubbing brush, Vim enamel cleaner, and a glass tube of Alka-Seltzer.
The small pharmacy in another room is stacked with tonics and medicines for the care of animals and a study holds books and ledgers.
During a break in filming, Sam West, who plays Siegfried, stops off for a chat, dressed in costume of a brown tweed three-piece suit. He sets the scene for the opening episode.
“Siegfried has this rural Yorkshire practice and he’s a very good vet but disorganised. His work has built up and he now needs an assistant vet to help him. James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary school, arrives and Siegfried has forgotten about his appointment.
“So he produces his letter of recommendation and Siegfried says, ‘No, no, don’t worry about all that. I want to see if you can do the job. Come on, let’s go.’
“So they go out on their daily rounds and he watches James work. And he realises that James is not only a very determined vet but a very talented one who already has his own way of doing things.
“And, rather to his surprise and slightly against his inclination, he likes him.”
Sam, 54, the son of acting parents Timothy West and Prunella Scales, has fond memories of watching the original series when he was growing up.
“I would watch it with my mum and dad. It was very much loved and the books are enormously popular around the world. My
partner’s mother is more delighted about this job than any I have ever done, because she’s a great fan of the books.
“Robert Hardy was wonderful in the role of Siegfried and he’s a great character to play.
“Donald Sinclair, the real-life vet who Siegfried was based on, was a very eccentric man and almost chronically forgetful. He used to tell his assistant something and then contradict himself and deny he ever said such a thing. So it was quite hard for him to retain assistants.
“But one of them, a lovely man called Andy who acted as our veterinary consultant, said he maintained working with Donald because instead of saying to him, ‘But you said exactly the opposite thing yesterday’ he would just reply, ‘Yes, of course. I’m so sorry. Silly me.’ So Donald thought he was very reasonable.”
The cast includes Callum Woodhouse, who played Leslie in The Durrells, as Siegfried’s errant and charismatic younger brother Tristan, Anna Madeley as the long-suffering housekeeper Mrs Hall, and Rachel Shenton as farmer’s daughter and Herriot’s love-interest, Helen.
Newcomer Nicholas Ralph, 30, takes on the role of James Herriot, which was the pseudonym of veterinary surgeon Alf Wight.
“I had never heard of the stories before, but when I read the books and saw a couple of episodes from the original TV series I thought they were wonderful with three-dimensional characters who bounce off each other so well and I couldn’t wait to get started,” he says.
“My uncle is a massive fan of the books and as a boy had read them all. He lived near Alf Wight’s veterinary practice and his mum took him along one day and they opened the door for signings and my uncle had his book signed.
“So when I told him I was auditioning to play him he nearly hit the roof. He was beside himself when I got the role.”