All I get asked is if I kiss Helen... I hope people are pleased with how it goes
It is the moment All Creatures Great and Small fans have been desperate for since the show returned to our screens, James Herriot finally getting the girl and kissing farmer Helen.
Nicholas Ralph, who plays the Scottish vet, says he and co-star Rachel Shenton even had to do stunts for the scene atop a barn, looking out over the glorious Yorkshire countryside.
He says: “I remember I read the scene and thought, ‘This is perfect’.
“However, when I first saw the barn had a slate roof, I wondered if it was going to hold us but thankfully it was fine when we were actually up there.
“We had to be harnessed on to the top. But the top was flat and wide so once we were up there it was absolutely fine. Watching it after, I just thought, ‘This is stunning’.”
And he’s expecting viewers to be delighted with the latest story development. Nicholas explains: “The main thing people have asked me is, ‘Are they going to kiss? When is that going to happen?’ So I hope everyone will be pleased with how that goes.”
But he admits he was nervous taking on his breakthrough role of the real-life Sunderland vet, especially as the original BBC series, which ran from 1978 to 1990, was so popular.
“It was a big deal for me – there were slight nerves there,” says Nicholas. “But the overriding feeling was definitely one of excitement because it was my first TV job. I am so fortunate for this to be my introduction into the world of TV. I just hope I’m doing James Herriot justice.”
All Creatures Great and Small is based on the memoirs of vet Alf Wight, who wrote under the Herriot pen name. The books, which follow James as he begins his first job in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s, have sold millions of copies around the world since they were published in the 1970s.
In 1978, a BBC adaptation saw Christopher Timothy in the lead role, with the reboot first shown on Channel 5 in September 2020.
And it has been a massive success with the first series garnering a weekly audience of more than three million, becoming the highest-rated show for the TV station in five years.
Nicholas believes it has been so popular as it has a real British charm.
“Somebody described it to me as like ‘getting a big hug from a TV show’, which I think is exactly it,” says Nicholas. “You’ve also got all these amazing quirky characters that are based on real people.
“It’s quintessentially British in that nobody does eccentrics like the Brits. You’re laughing out loud one minute, then touched by the characters the next.”
The second series of All Creatures Great and Small resumed filming in March,
and Nicholas says initially it was something of a shock to the system.
“I’d gone from spending all my time in my flat with one other person, to being in a room with around 15 to 20 people so it took a bit of getting used to at first,” he says.
And filming with coronavirus restrictions was not the only thing that changed. Following the death in September 2020 of acting icon Dame Diana Rigg, who played eccentric widow Mrs Pumphrey, Patricia Hodge was brought into the role.
Nicholas says: “It was terribly sad news when Diana died. It was so fortunate that I had an opportunity to work with her. She was brilliant, she had such a wicked sense of humour and a twinkle in her eye.
“With a character like Mrs Pumphrey, there was so much great material there that recasting her was the way to go, and what a person to cast in another British acting legend in Patricia Hodge!
“She’s made Mrs Pumphrey completely her own.
“I also find chatting to her between takes is just priceless for a younger
actor – she tells me stories which I’ve A taken a lot from.” nd it’s not just his fellow cast members Nicholas enjoys working with, but the animals too, although there have certainly been some sticky moments for his co-stars.
“I get to spend quite a lot of time round the back of cows, which I’m never particularly excited about,” he laughs. “Somehow, I’ve managed to get away scot-free, but Callum Woodhouse, who plays Tristan Farnon, has been both peed and pooed on which is really unfortunate for him.”
■ All Creatures Great and Small continues every Thursday at 9pm on Channel 5.