Our Favourite Vets Return To TV
On location for TV’s latest adaptation of the classic, All CreaturesGreatandSmall
The daily life of a 1930s vet in the Yorkshire Dales delighted generations of readers of James Herriot’s popular books, and a memorable TV adaptation in the ’80s and ’90s was staple Sunday night family viewing.
Now a new generation has the chance to capture a slice of the beauty of the countryside and the charm of the quirky characters, to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first book, in Channel Five’s heartwarming version of All CreaturesGreatandSmall.
www.myweekly.co.uk
It tells the story of newly qualified vet James Herriot who lands a job in the fictional village of Darrowby working for the eccentric and irascible Siegfried Farnon.
Filmed in picturesque Grassington, with interior shots on incredibly detailed sets in nearby studios, when we were invited on set it was like stepping back in time.
The focus of Siegfried’s home is the cosy kitchen with a workman-like wooden table in the centre of the room, clothes hanging from the ceiling on a drier, a chunky butler’s sink and a stove.
A shelf carries an oldfashioned bottle of furniture cream, a floor scrubbing brush, a yellow packet of Vim enamel cleaner and a glass tube of Alka-Seltzer.
The small pharmacy in the “house” is stacked with all sorts of tonics and medicines on wooden shelves for the care of animals, and there’s a peaceful study with books and ledgers.
“I remember watching the original TV series when I was growing up with my mum and dad,” says Sam West, son of actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales, who plays
Siegfried. “It was very much loved and the books are enormously popular around the world.
“Donald Sinclair, who Siegfried was based on, was a very eccentric man in real life 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