All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s01e99 Episode Script
Between the Pages
1
NARRATOR: "All Creatures
Great & Small" has lovingly
captivated readers,
viewers and animal lovers
for the past half century.
The pages of James Herriot's beloved memoirs of his colorful life as a rural veterinarian in the English countryside transport us back to a simpler time and place, a pastoral setting where lives of villagers, farmers and animals are intertwined.
Herriot's books were first published 50 years ago and became international bestsellers.
These stories are among the most beloved of the past half century for their kindness, humor, and charm.
The new masterpiece production of "All Creatures Great & Small," captures the warmth, the down-to-earth wit, and the generosity of spirit that infused James Herriot stories as they are brought to the screen for a new generation.
And in some of the most welcome news of the past year we can celebrate the arrival of a second season in the near future.
Join us and get comfy as we explore a behind the scenes look at the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian and his menagerie of animal patients as the cast and creators share their heartwarming stories about season one in this perfectly timed presentation All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
(dramatic music) VANSTONE: I think this is a really important look back on a time when we were more connected with the landscape around us.
JAMES: Morning, Edith.
EDITH: Morning.
JAMES: Morning wee'uns.
CHILDREN: Morning, James.
Madeley: It's a show set in a simpler time where community needed to be incredibly strong for people to survive and get through things.
FARMER: An operation? JAMES: We're going to try to drain the abscess but I won't lie to you, there's a good chance it might kill her.
FARMER: And if we do nothing, she'll die.
JAMES: Yes.
(somber music) JAMES: I'm in the abscess, it's clearing I've got it.
MRS.
HALL: Oh James.
(laughs) TRISTAN: Look you've done it.
FARMER: Good girl.
TRISTAN: Well done, old chap.
GALLANT: I think in a time where the world feels quite a difficult place, and a quite a divided place, these stories bring a sense of hope and of connection.
PERCIVAL: It's quite nice to be able to escape from current day (chuckles) and I think that gave us the opportunity to do that.
RALPH: The stories themselves are timeless.
I mean, that's why they're so popular, that's why they sold 60 million copies and people go back to them time and time again.
ALL: Happy birthday! (laughs) MAN: Hey, happy birthday.
CALLENDER: This was a show that really embraced the notion of community and a world in which people help and supported each other.
And that's the glory of this show.
And that's right at the heart of James Herriot's stories.
SHENTON: I think the Herriot stories transcend decades because they're about togetherness and community.
WEST: The scripts made me laugh in the first instance, I believed them as a community and I thought the spirit of them was beautiful and real.
SIEGFRIED: Well James, I think we can safely say, you're one of us now.
(crowd noise) JAMES: I suppose so.
MRS.
HALL: I knew you could do it.
Speaking of which, he's made it to 6:15.
SIEGFRIED: Two bones, isn't it? JAMES: You had a bet against me? TRISTAN: More of a sweepstake.
JAMES: You could have warned me.
SIEGFRIED: Baptism of fire old chap, baptism of fire.
The labors of Hercules pale in comparison to being a vet at the Darrowby show.
JAMES: Cheers.
(mugs clink, dramatic music) MRS.
HALL: Mr.
Herriot? JAMES: Yes, sorry I'm late.
MRS.
HALL: I'd almost given up on you.
SIEGFRIED: I'm sorry who are you? MRS.
HALL: Ah, I see you've met already.
This is Mr.
Herriot.
Madeley: James is this wonderful pure, naive, lovely young man who comes into the house.
WEST: Mrs.
Hall slightly behind my back is getting me to see these assistants and there've been five or six of them.
SIEGFRIED: We agreed there'd be no more.
MRS.
HALL: He's traveled all the way from Glasgow.
SIEGFRIED: I don't give a damn how far he's come he can just go back again.
Madeley: She's been gunning to find him I suppose, because she knows they need extra help.
MRS.
HALL: Give the boy a chance.
SIEGFRIED: Mr.
Herriot, I'm Farnon, Siegfried, don't ask.
JAMES: I'm James, thank you for this opportunity.
SIEGFRIED: Yes, well let's see how we run along first, shall we? SIEGFRIED: Jacket? MRS.
HALL: You're wearing it.
SIEGFRIED: Job list? MRS.
HALL: Pocket.
Will you not stop for tea? SIEGFRIED: I don't care how he takes his darjeeling, I want to know if he's up to the work.
Come along Herriot, don't just stand there.
JAMES: Are we not I thought this would be an interview.
I've got my references from the principal of Glasgow veterinary college.
SIEGFRIED: No, I'm not interested in a lot of flannel, let's get cracking, till tonight Mrs.
Hall.
MRS.
HALL: Good luck.
Madeley: I think he is a ray of sunshine coming into the home.
WEST: I've slightly sabotaged myself because deep down I think I don't really want another assistant.
SIEGFRIED: All right let's see what you're made of shall we? (car engine revving) Best foot forward.
(car engine revving) GALLANT: We were very keen to be authentic to the books and to find a young Scottish actor to play James.
The real James Herriot had a Scottish burr for his entire life having moved to Glasgow when he was little.
I looked through about 40 audition tapes.
Saw lots of wonderful actors but watching Nicholas' audition reel saying we found our James Herriot.
RALPH: She said, I wanted to call you just to congratulate you on getting the part of James Herriot And I was like, what, no (laughs).
PERCIVAL: And he's perfect.
Honestly, I couldn't believe that we found him.
I think it's gonna be a huge, huge star.
WEST: It's absolutely unacceptable that "All Creatures Great & Small" is Nicholas Ralph's first television job because he's ridiculously good.
WOODHOUSE: You'd never know he's been one of the most professional, hard working guys I've ever worked with.
WEST: There was a moment on the first morning where I think I probably said yes, that person is doing this, if you stand there, that'll help.
And he sort of nodded indulgently and then about an hour in I thought, leave him to it he's got it.
Was like he'd been on set for 20 years.
NARRATOR: For director Brian Percival, the character of James Herriot immediately felt real to him when he received the script.
PERCIVAL: You know, we knew the story.
We were very fond of them all and the characters.
And then all of a sudden Ben's script arrived and I opened it and it said "Glasgow docks, 1937.
" And that was like, whoa, hang on.
What's this about? And immediately there was something there that felt real because my father worked on the docks in Liverpool.
And I grew up in a similar background.
(dramatic music) That was the reason I connected.
There's actually a story here of a character's journey.
(exhales deeply) MOTHER: Your father's had to work.
JAMES: I don't want to work on the docks.
MOTHER: You should be thanking your lucky stars.
Men are queuing on the streets, begging for work.
PERCIVAL: You know to begin with, we're not quite sure which way it's gonna go.
So it's really important that we go on that journey with him.
GALLANT: James comes from a world outside of the Dales leaving his family behind and quickly finds a family albeit a rather unusual one.
JAMES: What was that? Did he say Darrowby? PASSENGER: Aye, Darrowby.
HELEN: Jenny, sit yourself down don't push past, sorry.
Little terror always wants to go at the back.
JAMES: Well, we kind of.
I think you dropped this.
JENNY: Thanks.
JAMES: I like golden bridges the best (laughs).
JENNY: Thank you.
DRIVER: On or off.
JAMES: I'm getting off, thanks.
(bus engine revving) NARRATOR: James' success delivering a calf overnight is one of the series' first big turning points.
JAMES: It's coming.
(cow moos) I think I've got it.
I think I've got it.
(cow moos) (exhales deeply) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) FARMER: Must have seen it a thousand times, never gets old.
(dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Herriot, (car door bangs) What the devil do you think you're playing at? FARMER: He's done good Mr.
Farnon one healthy girl in there.
SIEGFRIED: I never gave you permission to go out on your own.
JAMES: I'm sorry, but it turned out well.
SIEGFRIED: You were lucky.
JAMES: There was nothing lucky about it.
I've worked damn hard getting that calf out.
SIEGFRIED: Yeah, she seemed to have made quite a meal of it.
How long were you in there, five hours? JAMES: Has anyone told you how insufferable you are? SIEGFRIED: Not to my face, no.
JAMES: Thank you, Mrs.
Rudd.
SIEGFRIED: How much sleep did you get James? An hour, hour and a half? JAMES: None.
SIEGFRIED: Well better get used to it.
JAMES: Thank you, Mr.
Farnon you won't regret it.
SIEGFRIED: Siegfried please, Mr.
Farnon was my father.
(dramatic music) HELEN: Morning James! JAMES: Good morning.
SHENTON: So I describe Helen as a modern woman in 1937.
CALLENDER: And she's played by Rachel Shenton, who is I think going to be another major star that we're about to launch.
She is glorious as Helen.
GALLANT: When we first meet her this is very intentional from Ben Vanstone in terms of how we first met that character.
She is dealing with a very large bull that James is so frightened of he's shinned it up on top of a wall.
HELEN: Thanks.
GALLANT: The reality of that job would have been that she'd have to be very strong, have enormous capacity.
HELEN: Just don't look him in the eye.
SHENTON: James is in quite a compromising position with a farm animal and Helen finds it amusing and deals with it.
HELEN: Need a hand down? JAMES: No, I know I can manage.
HELEN: I'm Helen.
JAMES: Herriot, James Herriot.
Mr.
Farnon's new assistant.
HELEN: Oh? Another one.
RALPH: I just love working with Rachel.
She was so lovely.
(laughs) And didn't take herself seriously.
She was so grand, so down to earth.
Everything about Helen that I read kind of got that vibe from Rachel.
HELEN: Jenny, get yourself up to the house your homework needs doing.
I swear she's like a sheep dog but with half the sense.
JAMES: My mother used to dispirit my mucking about with animals, still does.
HELEN: She's my sister.
SIEGFRIED: How old is she now? HELEN: 12.
I swear I've aged two for every one of hers.
SIEGFRIED: Oh I'm sure she'll appreciate everything you've done when she's older.
HELEN: We can live in hope, can't we Siegfried? SHENTON: She's had a lot to deal with.
Mum passed away.
She looks after her dad.
She looks after the farm.
She looks after her younger sister Jenny.
She's almost become a mother figure to Jenny.
MADELEY: Helen is an extremely capable young woman, but being a parent is hard and especially in that way, and I think Mrs.
Hall has a huge amount of respect for that.
And also has an eye on her, a sort of caring eye.
JENNY: You don't trust me to do anything.
MRS.
HALL: I've been there, shouting, tantrums.
HELEN: Your Edward was the same? MRS.
HALL: He was, but I was thinking more of a HELEN: Mr.
Farnon? MRS.
HALL: Never mind.
HELEN: I just want her to know there's more to life than being a farmer or you have no time to yourself.
MRS.
HALL: You want me to take her for the day? HELEN: It wouldn't put you out? MRS.
HALL: Not a bit of it, have a break, you deserve it.
PERCIVAL: She's no shrinking violet and Rachel's got this strength about her that you feel like you would never sort of cross her really.
HELEN: So you thought you'd go behind my back because having money means you can interfere in other people's lives, because I'm too stupid to make my own decisions, because you're a man and you know best.
SHENTON: She is royally unfazed by anybody, regardless of, gender, status, all those kinds of things, she greets everybody exactly the same.
It's really nice to play but it's also a really lovely quality about her and I like that.
And there's a few encounters with James that you definitely see that there's no difference in terms of gender or anything like that.
She gives as good as she gets in fact better than James in some scenes.
HELEN: Other leg.
(cow moos) JAMES: I'll be back to see you soon, to see the calf, and to remove the cast from his leg in a couple of month, weeks.
(car horn beeps) I better go.
It was nice meeting you.
HELEN: You too, wait James, Siegfried's bark really is worse than his bite.
He's been very kind to us.
Underneath it all he's a good man.
(dramatic music) JAMES: I was wondering, I hope you don't mind me, but could I see you sometime? I mean, no, I can see you you're right in front of me.
(laughs) I'm sorry, I shouldn't have.
HELEN: It's not that it's just- HUGH: This is where you're hiding? HELEN: I wasn't hiding.
HUGH: No, I know.
Who's this? HELEN: James Herriot, Siegfried's new assistant.
HUGH: Oh, Hugh Hulton, pleasure.
GALLANT: Matthew Lewis plays Hugh Hulton, who is a local landowner who is also much to James' dismay in a relationship with Helen Alderson.
HUGH: Helen? HELEN: Hello, Hugh.
HUGH: What a lovely surprise.
HELEN: James gave me a lift back from Mr.
Dobson's.
HUGH: Very gallant of you.
CALLENDER: We wanted to find somebody who had a real presence and could be a real adversary for James.
(car engine revving) HUGH: I thought I was going back.
JAMES: I thought so too, but nevermind.
HUGH: Well, hold on.
(car engine revving) HUGH: You're Siegfried's chap, aren't you? Harris? JAMES: Herriot.
HUGH: Yeah that's it, yes sir, I do apologize.
Have a good day.
CALLENDER: Matthew was a wonderful choice and I didn't really think we'd get him to get one of the big actors out of Harry Potter I thought that will never happen, but we did and he's glorious in the show.
PERCIVAL: It's another inspired piece of casting to have what's to a generation a household name.
GALLANT: He is a big part of that community.
And Matthew really has created a character that is very lovable.
You can absolutely see why Helen's with him.
There's a tenderness to him, there's a keenness to him.
HELEN: It started as a friendship, they grew up together, they know each other very, very well, their families know each other, and they share something really really important to both of them in terms of they both lost somebody very, very close to them.
Helen lost her mom, Hugh lost his dad that's why he inherited the land, and I think that brought them closer together.
JAMES: I don't know how you dale farmers do it.
Your livelihood's constantly at the mercy of nature.
HELEN: We do our best to keep up with the rent.
Hugh is good to us not that I like to ask it of him.
JAMES: He's your landlord? HUGH: Since he inherited the estate he lost his father around the same time I did my mom.
That's really what got us together.
JAMES: I got the impression it had been going on longer.
HELEN: We've knocked about together since we were kids.
Well, when he wasn't away at school at any rate.
CALLENDER: James and Helen, they are two young people trying to find their way in the world, and trying to find their own sense of self and who they are.
And to some extent fighting conventions about what the world expects of them.
SHENTON: I Think because James is unassuming and isn't like the other men that Helen's met, he's reflective, he thinks, and I think that brings out a different side to Helen.
HELEN: You've been called out? JAMES: Going up to the Chapman's.
Susan's having trouble with her pups.
HELEN: I love birthing on.
Do you mind if I come with you? JAMES: I think you should probably stay and enjoy the party.
HELLEN: Please James, anything to take my mind off it all.
NARRATOR: When we return, we'll spend more time with this wonderful cast and hear more stories about the challenges of bringing this program to life in All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to All Creatures Great & Small Between the Pages.
Coming up, we'll learn more about what it's like working with animals and we'll spend time with Siegfried and Mrs.
Hall.
But for now, let's learn more about making this wonderful program up in the Dales.
(birds chirping) JAMES: Just enjoying the view.
CALLENDER: Aside from the cast and the stories the other big star of the series is of course Yorkshire.
It looks absolutely gorgeous on screen.
And part of the joy of the series is just the beauty of Yorkshire and the Dales, and the whole world in which these stories are set.
WEST: It's literally breathtaking, you can stand on the top of the hill and just go (breathes in) (dramatic music) SHENTON: The backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales is a character within itself.
That's, Heskett Fell Edelton just beyond.
Wedder over the other side, Culver and Senna.
JAMES: You talk about them as if they were old friends.
HELEN: I've known them my whole life.
PERCIVAL: It's such, such a beautiful part of the country that I just thought, I really want to embrace that and allow the audience to enjoy this beautiful environment that James goes into.
RALPH: So I'm from the north of Scotland, you know and it's beautiful up there.
So I thought, I'm sure it'll be lovely but it's quite nice where I'm from as well.
So then I got on the train I think it was from Carlisle to Skipton, and then I was just blown away completely.
JAMES: I didn't expect it to be so beautiful.
SIEGFRIED: One of the wildest spots in England.
PERCIVAL: There's much about the landscape as the characters and we should embrace that.
We've had all the support of Screen Yorkshire who have helped us shoot up there and we've shot everything on location.
SMITH: We drove hundreds of miles around the Yorkshire Dales looking at farms.
PARKINSON: I was very passionate about sort of keeping the whole Yorkshire theme of everything, because I'm a Yorkshire person I wanted to show how we Yorkshire people were, how Yorkshire women were and men.
SMITH: Filming in Yorkshire has been a joy because the people that we've met have been so warm and friendly because most people know these books and absolutely love them.
So they are delighted to be part of it.
BURRELL: They have been fantastically welcoming, and allowed us to use their beautiful village.
They actually fell in love with it.
And some of them asked if we could leave it that way so that they could stay in 1937.
SMITH: That warmth that the local people have brought to the production that sort of infuses everything really.
I think it adds to the general warmth of the show.
JAMES: Up in the Dales, surrounded by those hills.
There's no place on earth like it.
HELEN: Careful, once it gets in your bones, it's hard to get out.
JAMES: I'm not sure I want it to.
HELEN: Good! (laughs) (dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Today we shall be lifting the curtain on the fascinating world of veterinary science.
(dog bark, wings flap, horse neighs) BURRELL: The challenges of this show, perhaps is in the title in that it's "ALL Creatures Great & Small" and that covers human characters but it also covers our animal friends on the show.
JAMES: Her mother rejected it now needs someone to look after her.
VANSTONE: I think there's a universality as well about humankind's relationship with animals.
WOODHOUSE: We just have all manner of animals from little cubs, to a parrot in one scene.
We've just got a whole host of them.
(animal noises, music) TRISTAN: You can't expect me to treat all of those.
MRS.
HALL: Tell them to be to be on their way then.
Either you climb out of that hole of yours or they'll chase you out.
CALLENDER: You got these wonderful characters, you've got Tricki Woo, you've got Clive the bull, you've got all these great animals who are onscreen and it was a lot of fun actually shooting them and actually finding a way to get them to be good actors.
WOODHOUSE: And the animal handlers have done an incredible job of making them like better actors than we are.
SHENTON: I mean we've tried our best, but the animals upstage us every time.
WEST: You have to work with extraordinary animals that are trained to do things and generally they do it, until they don't want to do it anymore.
TRISTAN: Come on please Tricki the pub is just there, it's no distance at all.
(playful music) TRISTAN: No, I'm not carrying you genuinely I'm not.
Madeley: I've had the odd, small animal crisis trying to work with some cats who didn't want to do what I tried to tell them to do.
One crawled down my back and the other sat and purred very nicely.
JAMES: Oh God.
JENNY: No Leopold, let go, stop pulling your hand, if you jump around it'll just bite harder.
VILLAGER: And I thought vets were supposed to have a way with animals.
(laughs) BARRETT: They're quite big, imposing animals and some of them weigh over a ton.
And I think if you're not used to being around them and you're nervous, then that shows.
(cow moos) JAMES: Oh God.
(cow moos) JAMES: Good boy.
Good lad.
PERCIVAL: I remember Rachel, when she first seen Clive she was a little bit nervous because he was probably about 20 times the size of Rachel.
HELEN: Right, oh, you be shy this time.
SHENTON: I was terrified in fact when I first met him, and I had to show that this is something that I do every day.
Helen works on a farm, she's grown up on a farm.
HELEN: Just don't look him in the eye.
SHENTON: It had to feel organic and natural.
And the only way to do that really was quite literally take the bull by the horns and commit to it.
BARRETT: I thought she did really well to sort of overcome her nervousness.
WOODHOUSE: These stories are going to speak to all types of audiences young and old because it's about the love of animals, who doesn't love animals? I think it's gonna appeal to everyone.
JAMES: Everyone speaks very highly of him.
Obviously he's an experienced vet.
TRISTAN: I sense a but.
JAMES: He's not without his inconsistencies.
TRISTAN: Inconsistencies.
(laughing) The man's a lunatic.
SIEGFRIED: Money.
It's empty.
What utter rot.
We are done when I damn well say we're done.
MRS.
HALL: Well, you seem in a cheery mood this morning.
GALLANT: When we were starting to think about casting, we made a list of all the different elements, characteristics that Siegfried needed to embody and it was a very big list.
He's a very wonderfully complicated man.
WEST: I mean, he's a mercurial, bad-tempered, emotionally stunted man in his late forties I can't think why they thought of me, but I might be quite good casting.
PERCIVAL: Right from the off my first choice for Siegfried was always Sam West.
I just thought he's a wonderful character actor.
His timing is impeccable.
And I think he's absolutely terrific.
WEST: I really liked the fact that Siegfried is easily bored.
And you're always slightly trying to keep up with him.
JAMES: The brakes don't work? SIEGFRIED: Oh that happens from time to time, they're consistently inconsistent.
JAMES: How am I supposed to slow down? Why would you want to? We want to get faster Herriot, not slower, faster.
RALPH: He's like a mentor, somewhat father figure almost to James.
But also has his eccentricities, can be difficult but James knows how to handle that.
SIEGFRIED: Care to explain yourself? JAMES: Yes, absolutely, I'm sorry.
Sorry, what have I done? WEST: So there's a certain amount of soft shoe shuffling that has to go on around Siegfried but, he's got a heart of gold.
SIEGFRIED: If I offended you earlier, it's only that for me the animal always comes first above all things.
PARKINSON: Some of Siegfried's words can be a little bit sort of come across as harsh but it's not like that.
RANSOM: If you want this job, he'll have to go do we have an understanding? SIEGFRIED: Actually we don't.
Herriot's the best assistant I've ever had.
I won't betray him for anything.
VANSTONE: In the books, you almost get the extremes of Siegfried but we also have to think about what he's doing when he's not doing that.
MRS.
HALL: You're a good man Siegfried Farnon, no matter how much you try to hide it.
SIEGFRIED: Yes, well, keep it to yourself.
Don't want people thinking I've gone soft.
WEST: I think what really makes the relationship between Siegfried and Mrs.
Hall work is respect.
Madeley: Sometimes they can have a good argument (laughs) and sometimes Mr.
Farnon can be quite testing.
SIEGFRIED: I know you're the patron Saint of lost causes, but really MRS.
HALL: And what exactly is that supposed to mean? SIEGFRIED: That you care about people who sometimes don't deserve it.
MRS.
HALL: Oh on that we must agree.
TRISTAN: Shouldn't have done this Siegfried it's too much.
SIEGFRIED: I should.
I'll never forget the day father gave me my first car.
Struck me that's a memory you never got to share with him.
WEST: Siegfried and Tris are nearly 20 years apart in age.
So I was much more of a father than a brother to him during his formative years.
WOODHOUSE: I think in many ways Tristan's likes, he sort of enjoys winding him up and getting that out of him and he's like, yeah, there we go, I've hit the jackpot, I've got him to shout at me type of thing.
SIEGFRIED: Can you in fact hear that? TRISTAN: What? JAMES: Don't worry I'll get it.
TRISTAN: No you won't, don't you dare it's his job.
I told him to do it and he'll damn well do it.
Don't walk away when I'm talking to you.
I thought you wanted me to answer the phone.
MRS.
HALL: Can no one hear that? SIEGFRIED: Don't answer it he has to do it.
TRISTAN: Genuinely no idea what you want me to do.
SIEGFRIED: I am fed up to the back teeth with you.
All you do is laze around fattening yourself while I foot the bill.
WEST: Basically I find him deeply unreliable and very, very annoying, although I love him with all my heart.
SIEGFRIED: I heard what you did at yesterday's surgery.
It's the good stuff.
(dramatic music) GALLANT: It was a huge privilege to bring these stories back to the screen again.
And a huge responsibility too.
VANSTONE: I think what I love most about the Herriot books is the way he's able to paint a world and his characters.
I mean, they're really well-written, they're really warm, but also there's a sort of a reality of what the Dales was like, there's a harshness to it as well which I love.
CALLENDER: James Herriot actually was a pseudonym, his real name was Alf Wight.
GALLANT: Sadly, Alf Wight's no longer with us.
So it was incredibly important to us to spend time with his son, Jim, his daughter, Rosie, and granddaughter Zoe.
CALLENDER: We made a promise to them that we would do right by their father's work and that we would adapt the books in a way that was true to James Herriot's, Alf Wight's, original vision of what these stories were.
SHENTON: We were really lucky with research I feel on this job because we had the books to refer to which is like a Bible.
WEST: I knew and loved the first two books as a teenager.
And going back to them I remembered why.
I think there's something about the space that he creates, the emotional, as well as the physical space that he creates in the books that makes you feel you're there it's very authentic.
WOODHOUSE: And I was literally just sat by the pool like reading these books and just laughing, giggling out loud.
TRISTAN: You know, I think we might've got away with it.
(car breaks) WOODHOUSE: One chapter it'll switch from that to something that is actually quite so poignant and sad and it just switches back and forth so amazingly.
JAMES: My parents really struggled to find the money to put me through college.
I'll be eternally grateful for it.
SIEGFRIED: You repaid their faith in you by your achievement.
JAMES: Only because you gave me a chance.
SIEGFRIED: And what if he fails again? What then? JAMES: What if he doesn't? (dramatic music) SMITH: This new adaptation brings more of a depth to the characters.
Some of the female characters are more important in this production.
I feel the scale is bigger, the stories are amazing, they're truthful to the books yet they bring more depth to those characters.
VANSTONE: The biggest challenge for us was to find a way to tell a dramatic story that a modern audience could engage with while still remaining truthful to material that was there.
Immerse yourself in the voice, and the tone of the stories, and the tone of the humor.
So I can sort of recreate that and try and write in the same voice as Herriot.
(dramatic music) MRS.
HALL: Set yourself down I'll make you some tea.
(book thump) (rifle shot) MRS.
HALL: Darrowby, two, two, nine, seven.
GALLANT: Anna Madeley plays Mrs.
Hall Mrs.
Hall in Herriot's books was actually not a very big character.
VANSTONE: We felt right from the beginning that the house was slightly imbalanced with just the three men, and that we needed a heart to that family and that's where we did a lot of work with Mrs.
Hall.
SIEGFRIED: Thank you.
MRS.
HALL: I'll keep an eye on Tristan for you.
SIEGFRIED: Yes do, remember spare the road, spoil the child.
(car engine revving) Madeley: I really loved what Ben had written.
It was really fun, It leapt off the page to me and in a slightly different way I think to the other actors I had an opportunity to create a character that we'd never met before.
MRS.
HALL: I'm Mrs.
Hall I keep house for Mr.
Farnon.
GALLANT: One thing that was incredibly important to us was that as a female character, she was very fully explored with her own story that runs through the series.
Madeley: She looks after the house and looks after their emotional relationship was quite a lot as well.
She's a good negotiator.
MRS.
HALL: Stay calm, don't enrage him.
CALLENDER: They are sort of a surrogate family and she's plays a very important role in this.
She becomes the sort of emotional pivot but these three guys who are all sort of flailing and running in opposite directions and she keeps them all grounded and honest.
MRS.
HALL: Well done today.
Well, you're not finished yet, number one.
Madeley: She's got a strong sense of her values but she's also got a little sense of mischief about her.
(rifle hits can) (claps) MRS.
HALL: Well, what was it you wanted, Jenny? The dog or the bear, I'd say we've won both.
JAMES: Well done.
SIEGFRIED: Where on earth did you learn to shoot like that? MRS.
HALL: What did you think we did in the Wrens embroidery? GALLANT: We wanted to move away from a sort of archetypal housekeeper who sort of is rather older and shuffles around making tea.
And Anna has bought us the most wonderful and fresh version of Mrs.
Hall.
(knock, knock) Madeley: She adores them and respects them and is very pleased to be at Skeldale House.
SIEGFRIED: You encouraged me to take on James.
MRS.
HALL: I nudged you in the right direction.
WOODHOUSE: It's Siegfried practice but we all know Mrs.
Hall runs the place.
WEST: I like to think I'm the center of the house but actually it's Mrs.
Hall.
MRS.
HALL: Let go of that armchair then? SIEGFRIED: I don't want to.
MRS.
HALL: You can't.
SIEGFRIED: It's preposterous, see.
MRS.
HALL: Bed! Now.
WOODHOUSE: She's just Tristan's sort of mom figure, really.
JAMES: I think you best do it, Tris.
Earn your keep while you're here.
TRISTAN: I distinctly recall you telling me my brother asked you to do it.
JAMES: But don't you want to get back into Siegfried's good books? MRS.
HALL: Honestly, I should knock your heads together.
You'll feed them mornings, you'll feed them nights.
Madeley: Being a parent is hard.
PERCIVAL: You can sit and watch Anna throughout a scene and know exactly what's going on and she doesn't say a word she that good, knew exactly what she's feeling or what she's meant to be feeling more than often, a lot more than that too.
And repeat the sounding joy ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ And glories of His righteousness ♪ And wonders of His love ♪ And wonders of His love ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ NARRATOR: When we return, we'll spend more time with this wonderful cast and crew.
Plus we'll take a behind the scenes visit to the set of Skeldale House in Darrowby in All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
Coming up, we'll learn more about the troublemaker Tristan Farnon and we'll go on a behind the scenes tour of the All Creatures set.
But for now, let's spend some time with the eccentric Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: It's a pleasure to meet you.
JAMES: And you must be Tricki Woo.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: That's no way to greet Mr.
Herriot.
Paw! Honestly, you'd think he'd been dragged up.
CALLENDER: For those people who know the books.
The role of Mrs.
Pumphrey is of course, one of the most memorable roles in the books, along of course with Tricki Woo, her dog.
So we had to step up to the plate to really find somebody wonderful to play Mrs.
Pumphrey and who better than Dame Diana Rigg.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: I don't know why this keeps happening.
I only feed him the very best food.
JAMES: Well that can be part of the problem.
What exactly is it you're feeding him? MRS.
PUMPHREY: The usual chicken, Beef Wellington, plum Duff.
PERCIVAL: She plays Mrs.
Pumphrey in a way that's slightly barking which is exactly right for the character, and she embraces that and fits wonderfully with it.
(barks) MRS.
PUMPHREY: He sounds so hoarse, give him a little kiss from mommy.
(laughs) (kisses) SMITH: We had a beautiful location to film in which was Bolton Hall which we used for Mrs.
Pumphrey's house.
She is an eccentric h in the grandest way possible.
JAMES: What's all this? MRS.
PUMPHREY: Well just a few essentials for Tricki.
Can't have him going without.
GALLANT: Dame Diana absolutely brings to life this wonderful woman who is slightly batty, and eccentric, and loves this dog more than anything.
JAMES: Is that trifle I see in his bowl.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: I know it's naughty, but is the only way to keep him happy.
He finds these occasions rather testing.
PERCIVAL: I think it was important because we do have some newcomers in the show that there should be one or two faces that are really well-known national treasures, if you like.
And so Dame Diana fitted that perfectly.
JAMES: Remember his diet Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Yes, yes two cups of dried biscuits and only brown meat.
TRISTAN: Bye Tricki, Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Darling (kisses) mommy loves you.
(dramatic music) PERCIVAL: It was quite important that we embrace the period, obviously because I really wanted to feel that it was 1937.
We were so lucky to get hold of Jackie, our designer, who lives and works in this area.
SMITH: Brian Percival and I have worked together in the past and he wants to talk about color, and he wants to talk about textures, and you can't ask for more than that.
PERCIVAL: Once we're in a landscape, we're out in the Dales.
The only thing that says it's 1930s is the car and the costume here.
So it's really important that we got those right.
LITTLE: We always confer on each character because we all have to be working in the color palette that's working together.
PARKINSON: I didn't want it to be too stylized.
I wanted it to be real world Yorkshire but still looking amazing in 1937 for a modern day audience as well.
BURRELL: James Herriot arrives in what he thinks is gonna be perhaps just an interview for a possible job.
(bell rings) And before he knows it is going out onto muddy farms in a city suit.
Well, once he gets that job you will then see he starts to get country suits veterinary suits, it evolves a little bit as it goes on.
WEST: Costume always helps you get into character, the simple act of putting it on is part of getting into character.
Wearing material that is different corduroy, wool, I mean all of those things change your silhouette and help you to think of yourself as somebody different.
JAMES: Siegfried, you look very festive.
TRISTAN: He's St.
Nick, every year he hands out oranges to the kids.
JAMES: I thought you wore red and white.
SIEGFRIED: Only since some blasted American drinks company told us so.
The real father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, wears green and white and so shall I.
SHENTON: Helen's daughter told me that actually Helen was the first woman at the area to wear trousers which was really significant in the thirties, but obviously not many women did it at the time.
So I've always been really keen, and I was really keen to make that her thing.
PERCIVAL: And also then we had to have the very heart of this series itself, which was the home that they all lived in, which was the set that we built.
GALLANT: Brian having created the Downton world brought a lot of that skill and knowledge to this show.
He and Jackie created our set in the studio of Skeldale House.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Charming little house.
So compact and functional like a Swiss Army Knife.
BURRELL: The beauty of building a set is you have ultimate control, you can shoot day scenes, night scenes just by changing the lighting, it's quiet.
SMITH: Here we are at the set for Skeldale House behind me.
We've built the set in an old mill building as you can see from the roof.
So do come in.
This is Seigfried's examination room.
You'll be able to see if you look up there some of the rooms have got part ceilings in and we allow spaces to be open so that we can put lights in from the top as well.
What's nice about this layout is that we get the opportunity to interconnect between the rooms, the actors are never have to leave shot they can just disappear into the depth of the set.
But then we're into the Mrs.
Hall's world really.
Mrs.
Hall spends a lot of time in this room, preparing meals, talking to Siegfried, James and Tristan.
So this is the back of the set.
This is where all the mess is, over here we've got the set for James' bedroom.
This room links directly to the sitting room through these double doors.
So that action can start in one room and then we can move with the actors up through to the other room.
We've exaggerated all the room sizes really by about 10% to allow us to work easily in them.
SIEGFRIED: Now James, I'm hoping to be back for afternoon rounds but I need you to hold the fort till then.
JAMES: Of course, thank you.
I won't let you down.
SIEGFRIED: Ah, many have said the same, but few rise to we've been robbed.
This was full only last week.
What're you doing? (dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Pick my brother up from the station he should be on the 4:30.
JAMES: There's another Farnon? JAMES: Look out! (car screeching) TRISTAN: Next, please.
CALLENDER: Some of the audience may have seen Callum in The Durrells.
He has brought to the screen here the role of Tristan.
JAMES: Have you traveled far? TRISTAN: Edinburgh been at veterinary college.
JAMES: Training to be a vet? TRISTAN: No electrician, yes of course, to be a vet in between having an enormous amount of fun at any rate.
PERCIVAL: He's just this mischievous energy which is trouble, which you just love him for.
WOODHOUSE: I've never really played anyone like this before.
I've never played anyone so sort of carefree, and fun loving, and just happy, optimistic, and positive.
GALLANT: And he's a very, very important tone and flavor in the show.
His comedy is very skillful and he brings enormous warmth as well to that role.
TRISTAN: I've got a magic mask, when I put it on, I can be anyone I like, I can be funny, I can be brave, and I can talk to anyone, even though I'm very scared of the world.
WEST: Callum has no right to be as good as he is at the age of 26.
It's ridiculous how at home in front of a camera he is.
JAMES: Tristan, are you perfectly comfortable over there? TRISTAN: I'm probably best employed in more of an overseeing capacity.
FARMER: What about carbolic and a pint of beer? TRISTAN: Would that be for us or the cow? (laughs) WEST: He's found the niche that he fits to be more fun and less responsible.
(knocks) SIEGFRIED: What are you up to in here? TRISTAN: Preparing medicines as ordered.
GALLANT: That relationship between Tristan and Siegfried is fascinating, quite complicated because having lost their parents when they were younger Siegfried is both a father and a brother and actually a boss to Tristan as well.
WEST: Although deep down, I feel in every molecule love for Tris in everything he is.
He's deeply annoying most of the time.
WOODHOUSE: Siegfried's probably most happy when he's telling Tristan off or scolding him for something.
SIEGFRIED: Where the devil do you think you're going? TRISTAN: I thought we were done.
SIEGFRIED: We're done when I damn well say we're done.
All right, we're done.
MRS.
HALL: It's difficult being the younger brother, being slightly brought up by your older brother, and going into the same profession and finding his own voice in there.
TRISTAN: If you'll excuse me for a moment, there's a piece of equipment that I suspect I'll need for this.
WOODHOUSE: Even if I come in on a morning and I'm not in the greatest mood just at the end of every day of playing Tristan, I'm just feeling really happy and good, it's a really nice feeling to go home with.
TRISTAN: Good boy, not so fierce, are you? Good boy.
(laughs) (dramatic music) CONDUCTOR: Hey! JAMES: Tristan Farnon? TRISTAN: Whatever you heard it's not true I didn't do it.
JAMES: I know that Siegfried sent me, I'm James Herriot his new assistant.
TRISTAN: Really? Poor you.
RALPH: I remember meeting Callum on the first day and I think I asked him every question under the sun about acting for screen.
WOODHOUSE: And he's just so much fun on set he just loves every second of being in there and that is really infectious to everyone around him.
RALPH: He was very generous with his time in there, and we just had a great laugh as well he was brilliant.
WOODHOUSE: Definitely wants to get back to the house.
He's realized that he's taken his bedroom.
TRISTAN: What happened to my room? MRS.
HALL: I'm afraid we didn't know for certain when you were coming back.
TRISTAN: Or was it more that you didn't know how long he'd be staying? MRS.
HALL: I'll leave you boys to get better acquainted.
GALLANT: He and James are actually more like brothers in some ways than he and his actual brother Siegfried.
WOODHOUSE: They're sort of formed like a sort of unified bond especially to sort of get through some of Siegfried's more eccentric sort of wears.
JAMES: I gave Siegfried the wrong cat to castrate.
I realized my mistake just in time.
TRISTAN: Was he very angry? JAMES: Furious.
TRISTAN: Oh, sweet manna from heaven tell me more.
Did he shout at you? JAMES: Screamed the house down.
TRISTAN: What the bloody hell is the meaning of this? JAMES: Words to that effect.
(laughs) RALPH: They are like brothers, best pals, thick as thieves, I think they just balance each other out so well because James has kind of got the smarts and the veterinary stuff down.
And Tristan comes along who's maybe a bit more savvy kind of has that street smarts or the social side.
WOODHOUSE: James makes Tristan maybe more studious and more attentive to the veterinary side and I'd like to think that Tristan makes maybe James a little more relaxed and fun loving.
They're just going to be really good mates, which me and Nick are now, which has been really nice.
TRISTAN: The only way we'll survive my brother is if we stick together.
(dramatic music) VANSTONE: At the heart, this is a show about a family, and it's a show about sibling rivalry, about parenthood.
So all those sort of stories that we live today and are living now.
SIEGFRIED: You passed.
TRISTAN: I'm sorry, what? MRS.
HALL: I knew it, that's my boy.
SIEGFRIED: You passed, little brother.
TRISTAN: I passed.
(laughs) SIEGFRIED: Our father would be very proud of you, and so am I.
RALPH: It's got that lovely balance of humor, drama, the relationships are so good the characters are so three-dimensional.
SHENTON: Those kinds of things don't have a limitation.
They aren't just for a specific age group.
So I actually think it's wonderful that everybody like a family could sit and watch it and enjoy it together.
CALLENDER: I have children who are in their teens and I'm always looking for shows that I can actually sit down and watch with them and we can enjoy together, and I think this is a show that just does that.
I think this is one of those great shows because of these wonderful books that you can sit down and watch as a family.
WEST: I think people like things for the same reasons on the whole, because they're funny and true and delightful.
And I think young people will like these for the same reasons.
Madeley: Like the books it's heartwarming and funny and they have a great community.
GALLANT: I think the world is so appealing and a wonderful escape from the complexities of modern life.
WEST: I think that what people will take away from it most of all is a sense of community, and ultimately of love for animals, for landscape, for each other, and I think we could do with a bit of that right now.
BURRELL: It is a show to make you smile, sometimes to make you cry, but always to make you laugh and feel good.
And it's been like that making it, and I think it will be like that for the audience.
SIEGFRIED: It's times like this, which remind me how grateful I am for everything I have, not the practice, or the house, or the beautiful countryside or any other thing, it's the people, infuriating as you all are I'm rather fond of you and well, there's that.
So well, Merry bloody Christmas.
ALL: Merry bloody Christmas.
(laughs) NARRATOR: Thank you for joining us for this Look back at the wonderful first season of "All Creatures Great & Small.
" Season two is underway and we can't wait to share new stories and adventures with you very soon.
The colorful cast and the menagerie of heartwarming animals from Darrowby will be back in your homes with their wit, warmth and generosity of spirit.
Until next time, this has been All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
(dramatic music)
The pages of James Herriot's beloved memoirs of his colorful life as a rural veterinarian in the English countryside transport us back to a simpler time and place, a pastoral setting where lives of villagers, farmers and animals are intertwined.
Herriot's books were first published 50 years ago and became international bestsellers.
These stories are among the most beloved of the past half century for their kindness, humor, and charm.
The new masterpiece production of "All Creatures Great & Small," captures the warmth, the down-to-earth wit, and the generosity of spirit that infused James Herriot stories as they are brought to the screen for a new generation.
And in some of the most welcome news of the past year we can celebrate the arrival of a second season in the near future.
Join us and get comfy as we explore a behind the scenes look at the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian and his menagerie of animal patients as the cast and creators share their heartwarming stories about season one in this perfectly timed presentation All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
(dramatic music) VANSTONE: I think this is a really important look back on a time when we were more connected with the landscape around us.
JAMES: Morning, Edith.
EDITH: Morning.
JAMES: Morning wee'uns.
CHILDREN: Morning, James.
Madeley: It's a show set in a simpler time where community needed to be incredibly strong for people to survive and get through things.
FARMER: An operation? JAMES: We're going to try to drain the abscess but I won't lie to you, there's a good chance it might kill her.
FARMER: And if we do nothing, she'll die.
JAMES: Yes.
(somber music) JAMES: I'm in the abscess, it's clearing I've got it.
MRS.
HALL: Oh James.
(laughs) TRISTAN: Look you've done it.
FARMER: Good girl.
TRISTAN: Well done, old chap.
GALLANT: I think in a time where the world feels quite a difficult place, and a quite a divided place, these stories bring a sense of hope and of connection.
PERCIVAL: It's quite nice to be able to escape from current day (chuckles) and I think that gave us the opportunity to do that.
RALPH: The stories themselves are timeless.
I mean, that's why they're so popular, that's why they sold 60 million copies and people go back to them time and time again.
ALL: Happy birthday! (laughs) MAN: Hey, happy birthday.
CALLENDER: This was a show that really embraced the notion of community and a world in which people help and supported each other.
And that's the glory of this show.
And that's right at the heart of James Herriot's stories.
SHENTON: I think the Herriot stories transcend decades because they're about togetherness and community.
WEST: The scripts made me laugh in the first instance, I believed them as a community and I thought the spirit of them was beautiful and real.
SIEGFRIED: Well James, I think we can safely say, you're one of us now.
(crowd noise) JAMES: I suppose so.
MRS.
HALL: I knew you could do it.
Speaking of which, he's made it to 6:15.
SIEGFRIED: Two bones, isn't it? JAMES: You had a bet against me? TRISTAN: More of a sweepstake.
JAMES: You could have warned me.
SIEGFRIED: Baptism of fire old chap, baptism of fire.
The labors of Hercules pale in comparison to being a vet at the Darrowby show.
JAMES: Cheers.
(mugs clink, dramatic music) MRS.
HALL: Mr.
Herriot? JAMES: Yes, sorry I'm late.
MRS.
HALL: I'd almost given up on you.
SIEGFRIED: I'm sorry who are you? MRS.
HALL: Ah, I see you've met already.
This is Mr.
Herriot.
Madeley: James is this wonderful pure, naive, lovely young man who comes into the house.
WEST: Mrs.
Hall slightly behind my back is getting me to see these assistants and there've been five or six of them.
SIEGFRIED: We agreed there'd be no more.
MRS.
HALL: He's traveled all the way from Glasgow.
SIEGFRIED: I don't give a damn how far he's come he can just go back again.
Madeley: She's been gunning to find him I suppose, because she knows they need extra help.
MRS.
HALL: Give the boy a chance.
SIEGFRIED: Mr.
Herriot, I'm Farnon, Siegfried, don't ask.
JAMES: I'm James, thank you for this opportunity.
SIEGFRIED: Yes, well let's see how we run along first, shall we? SIEGFRIED: Jacket? MRS.
HALL: You're wearing it.
SIEGFRIED: Job list? MRS.
HALL: Pocket.
Will you not stop for tea? SIEGFRIED: I don't care how he takes his darjeeling, I want to know if he's up to the work.
Come along Herriot, don't just stand there.
JAMES: Are we not I thought this would be an interview.
I've got my references from the principal of Glasgow veterinary college.
SIEGFRIED: No, I'm not interested in a lot of flannel, let's get cracking, till tonight Mrs.
Hall.
MRS.
HALL: Good luck.
Madeley: I think he is a ray of sunshine coming into the home.
WEST: I've slightly sabotaged myself because deep down I think I don't really want another assistant.
SIEGFRIED: All right let's see what you're made of shall we? (car engine revving) Best foot forward.
(car engine revving) GALLANT: We were very keen to be authentic to the books and to find a young Scottish actor to play James.
The real James Herriot had a Scottish burr for his entire life having moved to Glasgow when he was little.
I looked through about 40 audition tapes.
Saw lots of wonderful actors but watching Nicholas' audition reel saying we found our James Herriot.
RALPH: She said, I wanted to call you just to congratulate you on getting the part of James Herriot And I was like, what, no (laughs).
PERCIVAL: And he's perfect.
Honestly, I couldn't believe that we found him.
I think it's gonna be a huge, huge star.
WEST: It's absolutely unacceptable that "All Creatures Great & Small" is Nicholas Ralph's first television job because he's ridiculously good.
WOODHOUSE: You'd never know he's been one of the most professional, hard working guys I've ever worked with.
WEST: There was a moment on the first morning where I think I probably said yes, that person is doing this, if you stand there, that'll help.
And he sort of nodded indulgently and then about an hour in I thought, leave him to it he's got it.
Was like he'd been on set for 20 years.
NARRATOR: For director Brian Percival, the character of James Herriot immediately felt real to him when he received the script.
PERCIVAL: You know, we knew the story.
We were very fond of them all and the characters.
And then all of a sudden Ben's script arrived and I opened it and it said "Glasgow docks, 1937.
" And that was like, whoa, hang on.
What's this about? And immediately there was something there that felt real because my father worked on the docks in Liverpool.
And I grew up in a similar background.
(dramatic music) That was the reason I connected.
There's actually a story here of a character's journey.
(exhales deeply) MOTHER: Your father's had to work.
JAMES: I don't want to work on the docks.
MOTHER: You should be thanking your lucky stars.
Men are queuing on the streets, begging for work.
PERCIVAL: You know to begin with, we're not quite sure which way it's gonna go.
So it's really important that we go on that journey with him.
GALLANT: James comes from a world outside of the Dales leaving his family behind and quickly finds a family albeit a rather unusual one.
JAMES: What was that? Did he say Darrowby? PASSENGER: Aye, Darrowby.
HELEN: Jenny, sit yourself down don't push past, sorry.
Little terror always wants to go at the back.
JAMES: Well, we kind of.
I think you dropped this.
JENNY: Thanks.
JAMES: I like golden bridges the best (laughs).
JENNY: Thank you.
DRIVER: On or off.
JAMES: I'm getting off, thanks.
(bus engine revving) NARRATOR: James' success delivering a calf overnight is one of the series' first big turning points.
JAMES: It's coming.
(cow moos) I think I've got it.
I think I've got it.
(cow moos) (exhales deeply) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) FARMER: Must have seen it a thousand times, never gets old.
(dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Herriot, (car door bangs) What the devil do you think you're playing at? FARMER: He's done good Mr.
Farnon one healthy girl in there.
SIEGFRIED: I never gave you permission to go out on your own.
JAMES: I'm sorry, but it turned out well.
SIEGFRIED: You were lucky.
JAMES: There was nothing lucky about it.
I've worked damn hard getting that calf out.
SIEGFRIED: Yeah, she seemed to have made quite a meal of it.
How long were you in there, five hours? JAMES: Has anyone told you how insufferable you are? SIEGFRIED: Not to my face, no.
JAMES: Thank you, Mrs.
Rudd.
SIEGFRIED: How much sleep did you get James? An hour, hour and a half? JAMES: None.
SIEGFRIED: Well better get used to it.
JAMES: Thank you, Mr.
Farnon you won't regret it.
SIEGFRIED: Siegfried please, Mr.
Farnon was my father.
(dramatic music) HELEN: Morning James! JAMES: Good morning.
SHENTON: So I describe Helen as a modern woman in 1937.
CALLENDER: And she's played by Rachel Shenton, who is I think going to be another major star that we're about to launch.
She is glorious as Helen.
GALLANT: When we first meet her this is very intentional from Ben Vanstone in terms of how we first met that character.
She is dealing with a very large bull that James is so frightened of he's shinned it up on top of a wall.
HELEN: Thanks.
GALLANT: The reality of that job would have been that she'd have to be very strong, have enormous capacity.
HELEN: Just don't look him in the eye.
SHENTON: James is in quite a compromising position with a farm animal and Helen finds it amusing and deals with it.
HELEN: Need a hand down? JAMES: No, I know I can manage.
HELEN: I'm Helen.
JAMES: Herriot, James Herriot.
Mr.
Farnon's new assistant.
HELEN: Oh? Another one.
RALPH: I just love working with Rachel.
She was so lovely.
(laughs) And didn't take herself seriously.
She was so grand, so down to earth.
Everything about Helen that I read kind of got that vibe from Rachel.
HELEN: Jenny, get yourself up to the house your homework needs doing.
I swear she's like a sheep dog but with half the sense.
JAMES: My mother used to dispirit my mucking about with animals, still does.
HELEN: She's my sister.
SIEGFRIED: How old is she now? HELEN: 12.
I swear I've aged two for every one of hers.
SIEGFRIED: Oh I'm sure she'll appreciate everything you've done when she's older.
HELEN: We can live in hope, can't we Siegfried? SHENTON: She's had a lot to deal with.
Mum passed away.
She looks after her dad.
She looks after the farm.
She looks after her younger sister Jenny.
She's almost become a mother figure to Jenny.
MADELEY: Helen is an extremely capable young woman, but being a parent is hard and especially in that way, and I think Mrs.
Hall has a huge amount of respect for that.
And also has an eye on her, a sort of caring eye.
JENNY: You don't trust me to do anything.
MRS.
HALL: I've been there, shouting, tantrums.
HELEN: Your Edward was the same? MRS.
HALL: He was, but I was thinking more of a HELEN: Mr.
Farnon? MRS.
HALL: Never mind.
HELEN: I just want her to know there's more to life than being a farmer or you have no time to yourself.
MRS.
HALL: You want me to take her for the day? HELEN: It wouldn't put you out? MRS.
HALL: Not a bit of it, have a break, you deserve it.
PERCIVAL: She's no shrinking violet and Rachel's got this strength about her that you feel like you would never sort of cross her really.
HELEN: So you thought you'd go behind my back because having money means you can interfere in other people's lives, because I'm too stupid to make my own decisions, because you're a man and you know best.
SHENTON: She is royally unfazed by anybody, regardless of, gender, status, all those kinds of things, she greets everybody exactly the same.
It's really nice to play but it's also a really lovely quality about her and I like that.
And there's a few encounters with James that you definitely see that there's no difference in terms of gender or anything like that.
She gives as good as she gets in fact better than James in some scenes.
HELEN: Other leg.
(cow moos) JAMES: I'll be back to see you soon, to see the calf, and to remove the cast from his leg in a couple of month, weeks.
(car horn beeps) I better go.
It was nice meeting you.
HELEN: You too, wait James, Siegfried's bark really is worse than his bite.
He's been very kind to us.
Underneath it all he's a good man.
(dramatic music) JAMES: I was wondering, I hope you don't mind me, but could I see you sometime? I mean, no, I can see you you're right in front of me.
(laughs) I'm sorry, I shouldn't have.
HELEN: It's not that it's just- HUGH: This is where you're hiding? HELEN: I wasn't hiding.
HUGH: No, I know.
Who's this? HELEN: James Herriot, Siegfried's new assistant.
HUGH: Oh, Hugh Hulton, pleasure.
GALLANT: Matthew Lewis plays Hugh Hulton, who is a local landowner who is also much to James' dismay in a relationship with Helen Alderson.
HUGH: Helen? HELEN: Hello, Hugh.
HUGH: What a lovely surprise.
HELEN: James gave me a lift back from Mr.
Dobson's.
HUGH: Very gallant of you.
CALLENDER: We wanted to find somebody who had a real presence and could be a real adversary for James.
(car engine revving) HUGH: I thought I was going back.
JAMES: I thought so too, but nevermind.
HUGH: Well, hold on.
(car engine revving) HUGH: You're Siegfried's chap, aren't you? Harris? JAMES: Herriot.
HUGH: Yeah that's it, yes sir, I do apologize.
Have a good day.
CALLENDER: Matthew was a wonderful choice and I didn't really think we'd get him to get one of the big actors out of Harry Potter I thought that will never happen, but we did and he's glorious in the show.
PERCIVAL: It's another inspired piece of casting to have what's to a generation a household name.
GALLANT: He is a big part of that community.
And Matthew really has created a character that is very lovable.
You can absolutely see why Helen's with him.
There's a tenderness to him, there's a keenness to him.
HELEN: It started as a friendship, they grew up together, they know each other very, very well, their families know each other, and they share something really really important to both of them in terms of they both lost somebody very, very close to them.
Helen lost her mom, Hugh lost his dad that's why he inherited the land, and I think that brought them closer together.
JAMES: I don't know how you dale farmers do it.
Your livelihood's constantly at the mercy of nature.
HELEN: We do our best to keep up with the rent.
Hugh is good to us not that I like to ask it of him.
JAMES: He's your landlord? HUGH: Since he inherited the estate he lost his father around the same time I did my mom.
That's really what got us together.
JAMES: I got the impression it had been going on longer.
HELEN: We've knocked about together since we were kids.
Well, when he wasn't away at school at any rate.
CALLENDER: James and Helen, they are two young people trying to find their way in the world, and trying to find their own sense of self and who they are.
And to some extent fighting conventions about what the world expects of them.
SHENTON: I Think because James is unassuming and isn't like the other men that Helen's met, he's reflective, he thinks, and I think that brings out a different side to Helen.
HELEN: You've been called out? JAMES: Going up to the Chapman's.
Susan's having trouble with her pups.
HELEN: I love birthing on.
Do you mind if I come with you? JAMES: I think you should probably stay and enjoy the party.
HELLEN: Please James, anything to take my mind off it all.
NARRATOR: When we return, we'll spend more time with this wonderful cast and hear more stories about the challenges of bringing this program to life in All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to All Creatures Great & Small Between the Pages.
Coming up, we'll learn more about what it's like working with animals and we'll spend time with Siegfried and Mrs.
Hall.
But for now, let's learn more about making this wonderful program up in the Dales.
(birds chirping) JAMES: Just enjoying the view.
CALLENDER: Aside from the cast and the stories the other big star of the series is of course Yorkshire.
It looks absolutely gorgeous on screen.
And part of the joy of the series is just the beauty of Yorkshire and the Dales, and the whole world in which these stories are set.
WEST: It's literally breathtaking, you can stand on the top of the hill and just go (breathes in) (dramatic music) SHENTON: The backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales is a character within itself.
That's, Heskett Fell Edelton just beyond.
Wedder over the other side, Culver and Senna.
JAMES: You talk about them as if they were old friends.
HELEN: I've known them my whole life.
PERCIVAL: It's such, such a beautiful part of the country that I just thought, I really want to embrace that and allow the audience to enjoy this beautiful environment that James goes into.
RALPH: So I'm from the north of Scotland, you know and it's beautiful up there.
So I thought, I'm sure it'll be lovely but it's quite nice where I'm from as well.
So then I got on the train I think it was from Carlisle to Skipton, and then I was just blown away completely.
JAMES: I didn't expect it to be so beautiful.
SIEGFRIED: One of the wildest spots in England.
PERCIVAL: There's much about the landscape as the characters and we should embrace that.
We've had all the support of Screen Yorkshire who have helped us shoot up there and we've shot everything on location.
SMITH: We drove hundreds of miles around the Yorkshire Dales looking at farms.
PARKINSON: I was very passionate about sort of keeping the whole Yorkshire theme of everything, because I'm a Yorkshire person I wanted to show how we Yorkshire people were, how Yorkshire women were and men.
SMITH: Filming in Yorkshire has been a joy because the people that we've met have been so warm and friendly because most people know these books and absolutely love them.
So they are delighted to be part of it.
BURRELL: They have been fantastically welcoming, and allowed us to use their beautiful village.
They actually fell in love with it.
And some of them asked if we could leave it that way so that they could stay in 1937.
SMITH: That warmth that the local people have brought to the production that sort of infuses everything really.
I think it adds to the general warmth of the show.
JAMES: Up in the Dales, surrounded by those hills.
There's no place on earth like it.
HELEN: Careful, once it gets in your bones, it's hard to get out.
JAMES: I'm not sure I want it to.
HELEN: Good! (laughs) (dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Today we shall be lifting the curtain on the fascinating world of veterinary science.
(dog bark, wings flap, horse neighs) BURRELL: The challenges of this show, perhaps is in the title in that it's "ALL Creatures Great & Small" and that covers human characters but it also covers our animal friends on the show.
JAMES: Her mother rejected it now needs someone to look after her.
VANSTONE: I think there's a universality as well about humankind's relationship with animals.
WOODHOUSE: We just have all manner of animals from little cubs, to a parrot in one scene.
We've just got a whole host of them.
(animal noises, music) TRISTAN: You can't expect me to treat all of those.
MRS.
HALL: Tell them to be to be on their way then.
Either you climb out of that hole of yours or they'll chase you out.
CALLENDER: You got these wonderful characters, you've got Tricki Woo, you've got Clive the bull, you've got all these great animals who are onscreen and it was a lot of fun actually shooting them and actually finding a way to get them to be good actors.
WOODHOUSE: And the animal handlers have done an incredible job of making them like better actors than we are.
SHENTON: I mean we've tried our best, but the animals upstage us every time.
WEST: You have to work with extraordinary animals that are trained to do things and generally they do it, until they don't want to do it anymore.
TRISTAN: Come on please Tricki the pub is just there, it's no distance at all.
(playful music) TRISTAN: No, I'm not carrying you genuinely I'm not.
Madeley: I've had the odd, small animal crisis trying to work with some cats who didn't want to do what I tried to tell them to do.
One crawled down my back and the other sat and purred very nicely.
JAMES: Oh God.
JENNY: No Leopold, let go, stop pulling your hand, if you jump around it'll just bite harder.
VILLAGER: And I thought vets were supposed to have a way with animals.
(laughs) BARRETT: They're quite big, imposing animals and some of them weigh over a ton.
And I think if you're not used to being around them and you're nervous, then that shows.
(cow moos) JAMES: Oh God.
(cow moos) JAMES: Good boy.
Good lad.
PERCIVAL: I remember Rachel, when she first seen Clive she was a little bit nervous because he was probably about 20 times the size of Rachel.
HELEN: Right, oh, you be shy this time.
SHENTON: I was terrified in fact when I first met him, and I had to show that this is something that I do every day.
Helen works on a farm, she's grown up on a farm.
HELEN: Just don't look him in the eye.
SHENTON: It had to feel organic and natural.
And the only way to do that really was quite literally take the bull by the horns and commit to it.
BARRETT: I thought she did really well to sort of overcome her nervousness.
WOODHOUSE: These stories are going to speak to all types of audiences young and old because it's about the love of animals, who doesn't love animals? I think it's gonna appeal to everyone.
JAMES: Everyone speaks very highly of him.
Obviously he's an experienced vet.
TRISTAN: I sense a but.
JAMES: He's not without his inconsistencies.
TRISTAN: Inconsistencies.
(laughing) The man's a lunatic.
SIEGFRIED: Money.
It's empty.
What utter rot.
We are done when I damn well say we're done.
MRS.
HALL: Well, you seem in a cheery mood this morning.
GALLANT: When we were starting to think about casting, we made a list of all the different elements, characteristics that Siegfried needed to embody and it was a very big list.
He's a very wonderfully complicated man.
WEST: I mean, he's a mercurial, bad-tempered, emotionally stunted man in his late forties I can't think why they thought of me, but I might be quite good casting.
PERCIVAL: Right from the off my first choice for Siegfried was always Sam West.
I just thought he's a wonderful character actor.
His timing is impeccable.
And I think he's absolutely terrific.
WEST: I really liked the fact that Siegfried is easily bored.
And you're always slightly trying to keep up with him.
JAMES: The brakes don't work? SIEGFRIED: Oh that happens from time to time, they're consistently inconsistent.
JAMES: How am I supposed to slow down? Why would you want to? We want to get faster Herriot, not slower, faster.
RALPH: He's like a mentor, somewhat father figure almost to James.
But also has his eccentricities, can be difficult but James knows how to handle that.
SIEGFRIED: Care to explain yourself? JAMES: Yes, absolutely, I'm sorry.
Sorry, what have I done? WEST: So there's a certain amount of soft shoe shuffling that has to go on around Siegfried but, he's got a heart of gold.
SIEGFRIED: If I offended you earlier, it's only that for me the animal always comes first above all things.
PARKINSON: Some of Siegfried's words can be a little bit sort of come across as harsh but it's not like that.
RANSOM: If you want this job, he'll have to go do we have an understanding? SIEGFRIED: Actually we don't.
Herriot's the best assistant I've ever had.
I won't betray him for anything.
VANSTONE: In the books, you almost get the extremes of Siegfried but we also have to think about what he's doing when he's not doing that.
MRS.
HALL: You're a good man Siegfried Farnon, no matter how much you try to hide it.
SIEGFRIED: Yes, well, keep it to yourself.
Don't want people thinking I've gone soft.
WEST: I think what really makes the relationship between Siegfried and Mrs.
Hall work is respect.
Madeley: Sometimes they can have a good argument (laughs) and sometimes Mr.
Farnon can be quite testing.
SIEGFRIED: I know you're the patron Saint of lost causes, but really MRS.
HALL: And what exactly is that supposed to mean? SIEGFRIED: That you care about people who sometimes don't deserve it.
MRS.
HALL: Oh on that we must agree.
TRISTAN: Shouldn't have done this Siegfried it's too much.
SIEGFRIED: I should.
I'll never forget the day father gave me my first car.
Struck me that's a memory you never got to share with him.
WEST: Siegfried and Tris are nearly 20 years apart in age.
So I was much more of a father than a brother to him during his formative years.
WOODHOUSE: I think in many ways Tristan's likes, he sort of enjoys winding him up and getting that out of him and he's like, yeah, there we go, I've hit the jackpot, I've got him to shout at me type of thing.
SIEGFRIED: Can you in fact hear that? TRISTAN: What? JAMES: Don't worry I'll get it.
TRISTAN: No you won't, don't you dare it's his job.
I told him to do it and he'll damn well do it.
Don't walk away when I'm talking to you.
I thought you wanted me to answer the phone.
MRS.
HALL: Can no one hear that? SIEGFRIED: Don't answer it he has to do it.
TRISTAN: Genuinely no idea what you want me to do.
SIEGFRIED: I am fed up to the back teeth with you.
All you do is laze around fattening yourself while I foot the bill.
WEST: Basically I find him deeply unreliable and very, very annoying, although I love him with all my heart.
SIEGFRIED: I heard what you did at yesterday's surgery.
It's the good stuff.
(dramatic music) GALLANT: It was a huge privilege to bring these stories back to the screen again.
And a huge responsibility too.
VANSTONE: I think what I love most about the Herriot books is the way he's able to paint a world and his characters.
I mean, they're really well-written, they're really warm, but also there's a sort of a reality of what the Dales was like, there's a harshness to it as well which I love.
CALLENDER: James Herriot actually was a pseudonym, his real name was Alf Wight.
GALLANT: Sadly, Alf Wight's no longer with us.
So it was incredibly important to us to spend time with his son, Jim, his daughter, Rosie, and granddaughter Zoe.
CALLENDER: We made a promise to them that we would do right by their father's work and that we would adapt the books in a way that was true to James Herriot's, Alf Wight's, original vision of what these stories were.
SHENTON: We were really lucky with research I feel on this job because we had the books to refer to which is like a Bible.
WEST: I knew and loved the first two books as a teenager.
And going back to them I remembered why.
I think there's something about the space that he creates, the emotional, as well as the physical space that he creates in the books that makes you feel you're there it's very authentic.
WOODHOUSE: And I was literally just sat by the pool like reading these books and just laughing, giggling out loud.
TRISTAN: You know, I think we might've got away with it.
(car breaks) WOODHOUSE: One chapter it'll switch from that to something that is actually quite so poignant and sad and it just switches back and forth so amazingly.
JAMES: My parents really struggled to find the money to put me through college.
I'll be eternally grateful for it.
SIEGFRIED: You repaid their faith in you by your achievement.
JAMES: Only because you gave me a chance.
SIEGFRIED: And what if he fails again? What then? JAMES: What if he doesn't? (dramatic music) SMITH: This new adaptation brings more of a depth to the characters.
Some of the female characters are more important in this production.
I feel the scale is bigger, the stories are amazing, they're truthful to the books yet they bring more depth to those characters.
VANSTONE: The biggest challenge for us was to find a way to tell a dramatic story that a modern audience could engage with while still remaining truthful to material that was there.
Immerse yourself in the voice, and the tone of the stories, and the tone of the humor.
So I can sort of recreate that and try and write in the same voice as Herriot.
(dramatic music) MRS.
HALL: Set yourself down I'll make you some tea.
(book thump) (rifle shot) MRS.
HALL: Darrowby, two, two, nine, seven.
GALLANT: Anna Madeley plays Mrs.
Hall Mrs.
Hall in Herriot's books was actually not a very big character.
VANSTONE: We felt right from the beginning that the house was slightly imbalanced with just the three men, and that we needed a heart to that family and that's where we did a lot of work with Mrs.
Hall.
SIEGFRIED: Thank you.
MRS.
HALL: I'll keep an eye on Tristan for you.
SIEGFRIED: Yes do, remember spare the road, spoil the child.
(car engine revving) Madeley: I really loved what Ben had written.
It was really fun, It leapt off the page to me and in a slightly different way I think to the other actors I had an opportunity to create a character that we'd never met before.
MRS.
HALL: I'm Mrs.
Hall I keep house for Mr.
Farnon.
GALLANT: One thing that was incredibly important to us was that as a female character, she was very fully explored with her own story that runs through the series.
Madeley: She looks after the house and looks after their emotional relationship was quite a lot as well.
She's a good negotiator.
MRS.
HALL: Stay calm, don't enrage him.
CALLENDER: They are sort of a surrogate family and she's plays a very important role in this.
She becomes the sort of emotional pivot but these three guys who are all sort of flailing and running in opposite directions and she keeps them all grounded and honest.
MRS.
HALL: Well done today.
Well, you're not finished yet, number one.
Madeley: She's got a strong sense of her values but she's also got a little sense of mischief about her.
(rifle hits can) (claps) MRS.
HALL: Well, what was it you wanted, Jenny? The dog or the bear, I'd say we've won both.
JAMES: Well done.
SIEGFRIED: Where on earth did you learn to shoot like that? MRS.
HALL: What did you think we did in the Wrens embroidery? GALLANT: We wanted to move away from a sort of archetypal housekeeper who sort of is rather older and shuffles around making tea.
And Anna has bought us the most wonderful and fresh version of Mrs.
Hall.
(knock, knock) Madeley: She adores them and respects them and is very pleased to be at Skeldale House.
SIEGFRIED: You encouraged me to take on James.
MRS.
HALL: I nudged you in the right direction.
WOODHOUSE: It's Siegfried practice but we all know Mrs.
Hall runs the place.
WEST: I like to think I'm the center of the house but actually it's Mrs.
Hall.
MRS.
HALL: Let go of that armchair then? SIEGFRIED: I don't want to.
MRS.
HALL: You can't.
SIEGFRIED: It's preposterous, see.
MRS.
HALL: Bed! Now.
WOODHOUSE: She's just Tristan's sort of mom figure, really.
JAMES: I think you best do it, Tris.
Earn your keep while you're here.
TRISTAN: I distinctly recall you telling me my brother asked you to do it.
JAMES: But don't you want to get back into Siegfried's good books? MRS.
HALL: Honestly, I should knock your heads together.
You'll feed them mornings, you'll feed them nights.
Madeley: Being a parent is hard.
PERCIVAL: You can sit and watch Anna throughout a scene and know exactly what's going on and she doesn't say a word she that good, knew exactly what she's feeling or what she's meant to be feeling more than often, a lot more than that too.
And repeat the sounding joy ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ And glories of His righteousness ♪ And wonders of His love ♪ And wonders of His love ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ NARRATOR: When we return, we'll spend more time with this wonderful cast and crew.
Plus we'll take a behind the scenes visit to the set of Skeldale House in Darrowby in All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
Coming up, we'll learn more about the troublemaker Tristan Farnon and we'll go on a behind the scenes tour of the All Creatures set.
But for now, let's spend some time with the eccentric Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: It's a pleasure to meet you.
JAMES: And you must be Tricki Woo.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: That's no way to greet Mr.
Herriot.
Paw! Honestly, you'd think he'd been dragged up.
CALLENDER: For those people who know the books.
The role of Mrs.
Pumphrey is of course, one of the most memorable roles in the books, along of course with Tricki Woo, her dog.
So we had to step up to the plate to really find somebody wonderful to play Mrs.
Pumphrey and who better than Dame Diana Rigg.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: I don't know why this keeps happening.
I only feed him the very best food.
JAMES: Well that can be part of the problem.
What exactly is it you're feeding him? MRS.
PUMPHREY: The usual chicken, Beef Wellington, plum Duff.
PERCIVAL: She plays Mrs.
Pumphrey in a way that's slightly barking which is exactly right for the character, and she embraces that and fits wonderfully with it.
(barks) MRS.
PUMPHREY: He sounds so hoarse, give him a little kiss from mommy.
(laughs) (kisses) SMITH: We had a beautiful location to film in which was Bolton Hall which we used for Mrs.
Pumphrey's house.
She is an eccentric h in the grandest way possible.
JAMES: What's all this? MRS.
PUMPHREY: Well just a few essentials for Tricki.
Can't have him going without.
GALLANT: Dame Diana absolutely brings to life this wonderful woman who is slightly batty, and eccentric, and loves this dog more than anything.
JAMES: Is that trifle I see in his bowl.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: I know it's naughty, but is the only way to keep him happy.
He finds these occasions rather testing.
PERCIVAL: I think it was important because we do have some newcomers in the show that there should be one or two faces that are really well-known national treasures, if you like.
And so Dame Diana fitted that perfectly.
JAMES: Remember his diet Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Yes, yes two cups of dried biscuits and only brown meat.
TRISTAN: Bye Tricki, Mrs.
Pumphrey.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Darling (kisses) mommy loves you.
(dramatic music) PERCIVAL: It was quite important that we embrace the period, obviously because I really wanted to feel that it was 1937.
We were so lucky to get hold of Jackie, our designer, who lives and works in this area.
SMITH: Brian Percival and I have worked together in the past and he wants to talk about color, and he wants to talk about textures, and you can't ask for more than that.
PERCIVAL: Once we're in a landscape, we're out in the Dales.
The only thing that says it's 1930s is the car and the costume here.
So it's really important that we got those right.
LITTLE: We always confer on each character because we all have to be working in the color palette that's working together.
PARKINSON: I didn't want it to be too stylized.
I wanted it to be real world Yorkshire but still looking amazing in 1937 for a modern day audience as well.
BURRELL: James Herriot arrives in what he thinks is gonna be perhaps just an interview for a possible job.
(bell rings) And before he knows it is going out onto muddy farms in a city suit.
Well, once he gets that job you will then see he starts to get country suits veterinary suits, it evolves a little bit as it goes on.
WEST: Costume always helps you get into character, the simple act of putting it on is part of getting into character.
Wearing material that is different corduroy, wool, I mean all of those things change your silhouette and help you to think of yourself as somebody different.
JAMES: Siegfried, you look very festive.
TRISTAN: He's St.
Nick, every year he hands out oranges to the kids.
JAMES: I thought you wore red and white.
SIEGFRIED: Only since some blasted American drinks company told us so.
The real father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, wears green and white and so shall I.
SHENTON: Helen's daughter told me that actually Helen was the first woman at the area to wear trousers which was really significant in the thirties, but obviously not many women did it at the time.
So I've always been really keen, and I was really keen to make that her thing.
PERCIVAL: And also then we had to have the very heart of this series itself, which was the home that they all lived in, which was the set that we built.
GALLANT: Brian having created the Downton world brought a lot of that skill and knowledge to this show.
He and Jackie created our set in the studio of Skeldale House.
MRS.
PUMPHREY: Charming little house.
So compact and functional like a Swiss Army Knife.
BURRELL: The beauty of building a set is you have ultimate control, you can shoot day scenes, night scenes just by changing the lighting, it's quiet.
SMITH: Here we are at the set for Skeldale House behind me.
We've built the set in an old mill building as you can see from the roof.
So do come in.
This is Seigfried's examination room.
You'll be able to see if you look up there some of the rooms have got part ceilings in and we allow spaces to be open so that we can put lights in from the top as well.
What's nice about this layout is that we get the opportunity to interconnect between the rooms, the actors are never have to leave shot they can just disappear into the depth of the set.
But then we're into the Mrs.
Hall's world really.
Mrs.
Hall spends a lot of time in this room, preparing meals, talking to Siegfried, James and Tristan.
So this is the back of the set.
This is where all the mess is, over here we've got the set for James' bedroom.
This room links directly to the sitting room through these double doors.
So that action can start in one room and then we can move with the actors up through to the other room.
We've exaggerated all the room sizes really by about 10% to allow us to work easily in them.
SIEGFRIED: Now James, I'm hoping to be back for afternoon rounds but I need you to hold the fort till then.
JAMES: Of course, thank you.
I won't let you down.
SIEGFRIED: Ah, many have said the same, but few rise to we've been robbed.
This was full only last week.
What're you doing? (dramatic music) SIEGFRIED: Pick my brother up from the station he should be on the 4:30.
JAMES: There's another Farnon? JAMES: Look out! (car screeching) TRISTAN: Next, please.
CALLENDER: Some of the audience may have seen Callum in The Durrells.
He has brought to the screen here the role of Tristan.
JAMES: Have you traveled far? TRISTAN: Edinburgh been at veterinary college.
JAMES: Training to be a vet? TRISTAN: No electrician, yes of course, to be a vet in between having an enormous amount of fun at any rate.
PERCIVAL: He's just this mischievous energy which is trouble, which you just love him for.
WOODHOUSE: I've never really played anyone like this before.
I've never played anyone so sort of carefree, and fun loving, and just happy, optimistic, and positive.
GALLANT: And he's a very, very important tone and flavor in the show.
His comedy is very skillful and he brings enormous warmth as well to that role.
TRISTAN: I've got a magic mask, when I put it on, I can be anyone I like, I can be funny, I can be brave, and I can talk to anyone, even though I'm very scared of the world.
WEST: Callum has no right to be as good as he is at the age of 26.
It's ridiculous how at home in front of a camera he is.
JAMES: Tristan, are you perfectly comfortable over there? TRISTAN: I'm probably best employed in more of an overseeing capacity.
FARMER: What about carbolic and a pint of beer? TRISTAN: Would that be for us or the cow? (laughs) WEST: He's found the niche that he fits to be more fun and less responsible.
(knocks) SIEGFRIED: What are you up to in here? TRISTAN: Preparing medicines as ordered.
GALLANT: That relationship between Tristan and Siegfried is fascinating, quite complicated because having lost their parents when they were younger Siegfried is both a father and a brother and actually a boss to Tristan as well.
WEST: Although deep down, I feel in every molecule love for Tris in everything he is.
He's deeply annoying most of the time.
WOODHOUSE: Siegfried's probably most happy when he's telling Tristan off or scolding him for something.
SIEGFRIED: Where the devil do you think you're going? TRISTAN: I thought we were done.
SIEGFRIED: We're done when I damn well say we're done.
All right, we're done.
MRS.
HALL: It's difficult being the younger brother, being slightly brought up by your older brother, and going into the same profession and finding his own voice in there.
TRISTAN: If you'll excuse me for a moment, there's a piece of equipment that I suspect I'll need for this.
WOODHOUSE: Even if I come in on a morning and I'm not in the greatest mood just at the end of every day of playing Tristan, I'm just feeling really happy and good, it's a really nice feeling to go home with.
TRISTAN: Good boy, not so fierce, are you? Good boy.
(laughs) (dramatic music) CONDUCTOR: Hey! JAMES: Tristan Farnon? TRISTAN: Whatever you heard it's not true I didn't do it.
JAMES: I know that Siegfried sent me, I'm James Herriot his new assistant.
TRISTAN: Really? Poor you.
RALPH: I remember meeting Callum on the first day and I think I asked him every question under the sun about acting for screen.
WOODHOUSE: And he's just so much fun on set he just loves every second of being in there and that is really infectious to everyone around him.
RALPH: He was very generous with his time in there, and we just had a great laugh as well he was brilliant.
WOODHOUSE: Definitely wants to get back to the house.
He's realized that he's taken his bedroom.
TRISTAN: What happened to my room? MRS.
HALL: I'm afraid we didn't know for certain when you were coming back.
TRISTAN: Or was it more that you didn't know how long he'd be staying? MRS.
HALL: I'll leave you boys to get better acquainted.
GALLANT: He and James are actually more like brothers in some ways than he and his actual brother Siegfried.
WOODHOUSE: They're sort of formed like a sort of unified bond especially to sort of get through some of Siegfried's more eccentric sort of wears.
JAMES: I gave Siegfried the wrong cat to castrate.
I realized my mistake just in time.
TRISTAN: Was he very angry? JAMES: Furious.
TRISTAN: Oh, sweet manna from heaven tell me more.
Did he shout at you? JAMES: Screamed the house down.
TRISTAN: What the bloody hell is the meaning of this? JAMES: Words to that effect.
(laughs) RALPH: They are like brothers, best pals, thick as thieves, I think they just balance each other out so well because James has kind of got the smarts and the veterinary stuff down.
And Tristan comes along who's maybe a bit more savvy kind of has that street smarts or the social side.
WOODHOUSE: James makes Tristan maybe more studious and more attentive to the veterinary side and I'd like to think that Tristan makes maybe James a little more relaxed and fun loving.
They're just going to be really good mates, which me and Nick are now, which has been really nice.
TRISTAN: The only way we'll survive my brother is if we stick together.
(dramatic music) VANSTONE: At the heart, this is a show about a family, and it's a show about sibling rivalry, about parenthood.
So all those sort of stories that we live today and are living now.
SIEGFRIED: You passed.
TRISTAN: I'm sorry, what? MRS.
HALL: I knew it, that's my boy.
SIEGFRIED: You passed, little brother.
TRISTAN: I passed.
(laughs) SIEGFRIED: Our father would be very proud of you, and so am I.
RALPH: It's got that lovely balance of humor, drama, the relationships are so good the characters are so three-dimensional.
SHENTON: Those kinds of things don't have a limitation.
They aren't just for a specific age group.
So I actually think it's wonderful that everybody like a family could sit and watch it and enjoy it together.
CALLENDER: I have children who are in their teens and I'm always looking for shows that I can actually sit down and watch with them and we can enjoy together, and I think this is a show that just does that.
I think this is one of those great shows because of these wonderful books that you can sit down and watch as a family.
WEST: I think people like things for the same reasons on the whole, because they're funny and true and delightful.
And I think young people will like these for the same reasons.
Madeley: Like the books it's heartwarming and funny and they have a great community.
GALLANT: I think the world is so appealing and a wonderful escape from the complexities of modern life.
WEST: I think that what people will take away from it most of all is a sense of community, and ultimately of love for animals, for landscape, for each other, and I think we could do with a bit of that right now.
BURRELL: It is a show to make you smile, sometimes to make you cry, but always to make you laugh and feel good.
And it's been like that making it, and I think it will be like that for the audience.
SIEGFRIED: It's times like this, which remind me how grateful I am for everything I have, not the practice, or the house, or the beautiful countryside or any other thing, it's the people, infuriating as you all are I'm rather fond of you and well, there's that.
So well, Merry bloody Christmas.
ALL: Merry bloody Christmas.
(laughs) NARRATOR: Thank you for joining us for this Look back at the wonderful first season of "All Creatures Great & Small.
" Season two is underway and we can't wait to share new stories and adventures with you very soon.
The colorful cast and the menagerie of heartwarming animals from Darrowby will be back in your homes with their wit, warmth and generosity of spirit.
Until next time, this has been All Creatures Great & Small: Between the Pages.
(dramatic music)