Meet the... All (new) Creatures Great and Small
The Yorkshire vet is back in an irresistible remake of the TV classic
Come and escape to the country: to the Yorkshire Dales in 1937, and the endlessly sleep-deprived but richly rewarding life of a vet serving the local community of plain-speaking farming families.
Fans of James Herriot’s memoirs will probably approach this new television adaptation with great excitement but also some trepidation. Can it possibly escape the shadow of the muchloved BBC series, which ran from 1978 to 1990 and drew up to 20 million viewers a week?
Shot in the original locations among the enchanting landscape of rolling hills crossed by stone walls, Channel 5’s six-part series is a captivating visual delight, and while nothing can ever dislodge cherished memories of the original’s stars, the lead performances are charmingly true to the spirit of the books in their own fresh way.
Newcomer Nicholas Ralph, period perfect with his clean-cut looks and Brylcreemed hair, takes the part of Herriot, originally played by Christopher Timothy on the BBC.
Recently qualified in Scotland, the anxious young vet arrives in Yorkshire on a bus with his head buried in a textbook, prompting a local to point through the window and berate him: ‘Waste of bloody time. You won’t learn owt in there you can’t learn out here.’
He makes a shaky start in this isolated spot ruled by age-old traditions, where his Glaswegian accent prompts a farmer to ask: ‘Is he foreign?’
Now Herriot’s future depends on whether he can pass muster as an assistant to Siegfried Farnon, whose veterinary expertise is matched by the fierceness of his temper and a streak of eccentricity that borders on madness, alongside his younger brother Tristan (played by The Durrells’ Callum Woodhouse).
It would be something of an understatement to say that Farnon doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Inducting his protégé, he explains: ‘Ah, you see. The animals are the easy part. It’s the people who cause all the bother.’
A brilliant Samuel West imbues this prize role with a charismatic bluster that happily stands comparison with the great Robert Hardy from the original.
Of course, this is far from being an exclusively male world. Farnon’s housekeeper Mrs Hall is a force to be reckoned with, while the clever, independentminded young farmer Helen Alderson is a very modern 1930s woman who proves she can wear the trousers in every sense.
And with a supporting cast that includes Diana Rigg and Nigel Havers, and even a reprise over the end credits of the uplifting classic theme tune, you have a simple cure to chase the blues away. Never mind Call The Midwife: for an unfailing tonic of golden nostalgia – call the vet!