The Real James Herriot
◆ James Herriot was the pseudonym of veterinary surgeon Alf Wight.
◆ He graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College at 23 and took up a practice in Thirsk, Yorkshire.
◆ His books, chronicling his/Herriot’s adventures, were first published in 1970 and captivated readers, not just in Britain, but around the world.
◆ In 1975 there was a film adaptation, called All CreaturesGreatandSmall, based on the first two books, IfOnlyTheyCouldTalk and It Shouldn’t HappentoaVet, starring Simon Ward and Anthony Hopkins as Herriot and Siegfried.
◆ The subsequent TV series was one of the most successful and enduring of small screen dramas starring Christopher Timothy as Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried and Peter Davison as Tristan across seven series from 1978 to 1990.
◆ Filming of that TV series was mostly carried out in Askrigg, which doubled for Darrowby.
◆ Robert Hardy, who died in 2017, once recalled his first meeting with Siegfried. “I was intrigued beyond measure by him. He was a true eccentric and, like all true eccentrics, he had no idea himself how odd he was! He absolutely hated what I did, because he had no idea he was at all like that, but when we’d really got into it and were producing them at high speed, his friends used to come to me and say, ‘You’ve got him. That’s him.’”
◆ Christopher Timothy got the ultimate stamp of approval when Alf Wight wrote him a letter after the series started, saying, “You are the Herriot I wrote about.”
Woodhouse, who plays Leslie in TheDurrells, 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. Two of the
biggest names are in secondary roles – Dame Diana Rigg as Mrs Pumphrey, the wealthy eccentric owner of an overindulged Pekingese, and Nigel Havers as General Ransom, the fastidious manager of the local racecourse. www.myweekly.co.uk