The enduring Sunday-night favourite that offered creature comforts
Michael Hogan picks the TV classics that you can now rediscover
BLAST FROM THE PAST
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL ( 1978- 90)
Aremake of the classic James Herriot memoirs arrives on Channel 5 this spring to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the bestselling books. Before it does, why not whet your appetite by revisiting the nourishingly nostalgic original adaptation?
Skeldale House surgery in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Darrowby (filmed mostly in Askrigg) was staffed by three vets: Herriot himself (Christopher Timothy), his eccentric tweed-clad boss Siegfried Farnon (Robert Hardy) and Siegfried’s hapless “little brother” Tristan (Peter Davison). They tended to a mix of agricultural animals (spending many a scene with their arms inside cows) and local pets. The most memorable was posh Mrs Pumphrey’s pampered Pekingese called Tricky Woo.
Herriot’s wife Helen was originally played by Carol Drinkwater, who became a rural sex symbol and received mailbags full of marriage proposals.
After her off-screen romance with Timothy ended, Drinkwater decided not to return for the later series, so Lynda Bellingham took over.
Thirsk-based vet Alf Wight, who went under the Herriot pen name, wrote in an episodic style that suited television. Once producer Bill Sellars had run out of books – which have never gone out of print, shifting 60 million copies worldwide – he persuaded Wight to let him continue the hit BBC series with original scripts. Ninety episodes were broadcast, covering the period from 1937 to 1953.
Set against the stunning Dales backdrop, seamlessly blending drama with comedy, and with a heartwarming sense of community, the series became a Sunday-night staple. The Radio Times called it “a cup-of-cocoa drama”. It was affectionately nicknamed “All Creatures Grunt and Smell”.
Davison’s was a star-making turn, and when unit producer John Nathan-Turner became Doctor Who supremo in 1980, he soon cast his former workmate as the Fifth Doctor. Timothy, however, found himself typecast at first. “I remember hearing my agent scream down the phone: ‘He’s not a vet, he’s a bloody actor!’”
Did you know? The leading role was offered to actors Simon Ward, John Alderton and Richard Beckinsale, who all declined. When the series aired, Wight told Timothy: “You are the Herriot I wrote about.”
Available on: BritBox or DVD (complete collection £27.21)