TV’S YORKSHIRE VET ON
Peter aged six
Channel 5 favourite Peter Wright was a struggling young professional when he was given a £7,000 loan by his mentor Alf Wight, better known by his pen name James Herriot.
Alf had shown Peter the ropes at the same time as he was writing the All Creatures Great and Small books, which became a huge hit on the BBC.
The loan helped Peter secure his first home and cemented a friendship described in an entertaining new book, The Yorkshire Vet – In The Footsteps of Herriot.
The memoir tugs at the heart strings with one sentence then leaves you in stitches with the next as the vet’s tales unfold.
Peter reveals how Alf changed his life by dipping his hand so deep into his pocket.
HUMBLE
He says: “That gesture by Alf to help me when I was strapped for cash is a measure of the man who inspired me to become a vet.
“He was one of the most loyal men you could meet but he wouldn’t thank me for telling people of his kindness – he was a very humble man and a brilliant human being.”
Peter, 62, was a teenager when he did work experience for Alf and fellow vet Donald Sinclair in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
He then went to Liverpool Veterinary School where he and pals gathered round the TV for All Creatures Great and Small.
The show featured Christopher Timothy as James Herriot, while Robert Hardy and Peter Davison played Siegfried and Tristan Farnon – versions of Donald Sinclair and brother Brian.
Peter recalls: “We would crowd around the crackly TV set on a Sunday night. Seeing Donald and Alf as Siegfried and James made me proud and a little homesick.”
Peter spent his first year as a vet in Luton before returning to Thirsk to join Alf and Donald. “I was elated,” he says. And life was never dull. Peter says: “Once, Donald and Alf’s son Jim were doing a cat spay. The patient suddenly