All Creatures Great & Small

The adventures of a vet in practice

In 1978 the BBC decided to create a television series from the books written by James Herriot, using the title "All Creatures Great and Small".

The leading role was taken by a then unknown actor, Christopher Timothy, and the part of Siegfried Farnon was given to Robert Hardy. Tristan was played by Peter Davison (who went on to become the fifth Doctor Who). Helen, Herriots wife was played by Carol Drinkwater in the first three series, and she actually briefly married Christopher Timothy in real life.

 The programme ran for three series, but broke off in 1980 at the stage where the characters were drawn into the Second World War. Two specials were subsequently made in 1983 and 1985, and then in 1988 the programme was revived, and ran for four more series carrying on the story after the war.

In the revived series, Lynda Bellingham took over the role of Helen, and Judy Wilson played a new housekeeper, Mrs. Greenlaw, as Mary Hignett had died shortly after the end of the third series.

The Darrowby practice added a young vet with a liking for badgers in the form of John McGlynn playing Calum Buchannan (based upon Herriot's real-life assistant Brian Nettleton), a former classmate of Tristan's. The Herriot children, who had been introduced in the two specials, now became recurring characters, with Jimmy played by Oliver Wilson and Rosie by Rebecca Smith.

The television programme was filmed around Yorkshire, with some scenes shot at Bolton Castle. Indoor scenes were shot at the BBC's Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham. Apart from the two specials, most interior scenes were recorded on video and edited together with filmed exterior shots, as was common practice in British television at the time. The original set of the interior of the vets surgery is now located at the Richmondshire Museum in Richmond, North Yorkshire and is open to the public.

The theme and incidental music was by Johnny Pearson.

In real life, the character and writer James Herriot was actually Alf Wight who had indeed been a Vetinary surgeon and enjoyed many of the adventures he inflicted upon his fictional creation.