I sneaked into the Games and did a Highland dance. I loved to perform
The tiny dancer
All Creatures star Nicholas Ralph revealed how he made his acting debut at the tender age of four when he took to the stage at a Highland Games in his home town of Nairn.
The actor, 31, caused a sensation when he got up to dance to a pipe band. He said: “It was the mid-90s. I was about four, there was a band playing, and I sneaked through a fence.
“I started doing what I thought was Highland dancing. I was a show off and always had a thing for performing.”
Thetrickiwoo
Spoilt Pekingese Tricki Woo, owned by wealthy Mrs Pumphrey, regularly steals the limelight. Tricki (below, with Patricia Hodge as Mrs Pumphrey in the second series) is played by Derek the dog.
Nicholas said: “Derek’s incredible to work with and he gets better all the time. There’s a scene when I have to anaesthetise him. There I am with Derek pretending to do the injection.
“Suddenly I could see his eyelids slowly dropping and he went to sleep. It was perfect timing.
“The director said ‘cut’. Derek shot up, wide awake. It was an astonishing piece of acting. You’re never going to win a scene when
Derek is in it.”
The lookalikes
Veterinary adviser Andy Barrett is on set as Nicholas Ralph’s stand-in, performing real-life procedures such as the delivery of a calf, foal or puppy. When Andy and Nicholas are pictured alongside each other it is clear they have strikingly similar features to author Alf Wight, who wrote the books under his James Herriot pen name.
Coincidentally Barrett’s first job was with Alf at the practice in Thirsk on which Skeldale House is based.
He said: “I am a reluctant double. I’m much happier offering technical advice from the sidelines.
I’m horribly uncomfortable in front of the cameras. But for reasons of welfare, the actors aren’t allowed to do these bits.”