Trouble with Tricki-Woo

chemistry right, they got a group of people together who sparked off each other.” He joked: I’ve worked with a lot of animals and kids. I never worked with an animal or child who I wouldn’t work to work with again. But if you want a list of grown-ups…”

Carol left the show in 1985 and appeared in Casualty and Peak Practice. She also became an author, writing for children and adults. Carol’s latest, The Forgotten Summer, has just been released.

Her place on the Herriot show was taken by Lynda Bellingham, who died of cancer two years ago at 66. Carol, 68, said: “The cast worked very well together. There was a great electricity between us.” In All Creatures she played James’s wife Helen, based on Alf’s missus Joan Wight.

Carol recalled: “Joan plonked a photograph of herself on the table and said, ‘This is what I looked like.’ I was terrified of her, she was formidable. But I think she was rather pleased with my portrayal.”

The show was so popular that Carol was recognised in far-flung places. She said: “I was on the Great Wall of China when some people walked past and said, ‘Tha Carol Drinkwater from All Creatu Great and Small.’ I was so astounded.

Coachloads of tourists would arrive see filming in North Yorkshire. Not ev local liked the disruption. Christoph said: “We were once filming in Askrigg Wensleydale. Peter and Robert and I w coming out of Skeldale House ( t veterinary practice in the show). Sudde