An all-new season of All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot’s adventures as a British veterinary surgeon in the 1930’s – arrives on PBS starting Sunday, January 9, 2022.
The series is based on Herriot’s beloved books, filled with good humor and fond recollections of the hard-working — sometimes eccentric — farmers and townsfolk who inhabited the small villages and towns of Yorkshire, England before the Second World War.
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All Creatures Great And Small Season 2 Jan. 9, 2022
Below is the official PBS trailer for All Creatures Great and Small Season 2. You can find more previews on the Masterpiece PBS Youtube Channel.
Cast of ‘All Creatures’ Returns
Most of the cast from Season 1 is back for the new season.
Scottish actor Nicholas Ralph returns to star as James Herriot. English actor Samuel West is back as Siegfried Farnon, the wonderfully idiosyncratic veterinary surgeon and proprietor of Skeldale House, who takes the newly qualified Herriot into his rural practice. Siegfried’s charismatic and free-spirited younger brother, Tristan, is played by Callum Woodhouse.
Rachel Shenton plays the role of Helen Alderson, an independent local farmer’s daughter who is the object of Herriot’s affections. In Season One, the late Dame Diana Rigg, in one of her final roles, played Mrs. Pumphrey, the delightfully eccentric owner of an overly indulged Pekingese named Tricki Woo. For Season 2, actress Patricia Hodge will step into the iconic and beloved role.
Season 1 of the seven-part series was shown on January 10 through February 21, 2021. You can stream Season 1 by subscribing to PBS Passport, or you can see Episode 1 on Amazon Prime Video.
The Original Series
The original TV adaptation of “All Creatures Great and Small” aired in Britain on BBC television in 1978. The series ran for three years and was based on stories in Herriot’s first two novels, If Only They Could Talk (1970) and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet (1972).
A second series, which continued to follow Herriot’s veterinary career, aired from 1988 to 1990. In total, 90 episodes were broadcast.
The BBC series starred Christopher Timothy as Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon, and Peter Davison as Siegfried’s brother, Tristan. Herriot’s wife, Helen, is played by a different actress in each of the series’ runs: Carol Drinkwater originally, then Lynda Bellingham in the revival.
See the Original Series on Britbox
Season 1 of the original 1978 series (13 episodes) is available now on Britbox, a streaming collection of British TV. To request a 7-day free trial of the Britbox, click here.
More about James Herriot
James Herriot is the pen name of British veterinary surgeon and writer James Alfred (“Alf”) Wight. Following his graduation from the University of Glasgow’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Wight returned to England and maintained a veterinary practice in Yorkshire for almost 50 years.
He is best known for a series of eight books set in the Yorkshire Dales during the 1930s to 1950s. The books recount his veterinary experiences and the many memorable characters — both human and animal — he encountered through the years. His first book, If Only They Could Talk, was published in 1970. The last book in the series, Every Living Thing, was published in 1992 and sold 650,000 copies in six weeks in the United States. The book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for eight months.
James Wight died on February 23, 1995 at the age of 78.
Today, the writer’s former home and surgery is a visitor attraction — The “World of James Herriot” — located in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England. Click the video below for a tour of the home by Jim Wight, the author’s son:
A Reading from All Creatures Great and Small
Click below to hear Christopher Timothy, the actor who first portrayed James Herriot, do a reading from the All Creatures Great and Small audiobook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySetdC3MJY
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