Since 1978 All Creatures Great and Small has been enchanting generations with its special blend of drama and warmth.
Millions of families around the globe have tuned in to follow the heartwarming – and heartbreaking – adventures of a Yorkshire vet.
Yet as the show today celebrates its 45th anniversary, one original star confesses that no one foresaw it becoming a worldwide hit, while another was sure it would flop.
Actress Carol Drinkwater starred as vet’s wife Helen Herriot, alongside Christopher Timothy as rookie vet James Herriot, Robert Hardy as grumpy chief Siegfried Farnon and Peter Davison as his cheeky younger brother Tristan.
Based on the best-selling books of real-life vet Alf Wight, whose pen name was James Herriot, the series became a global phenomenon, running for 90 episodes until 1990 on the BBC. Channel 5 launched a remake, set in 1937, in 2020.
Carol, 74, says: “I’m amazed it is 45 years. None of us could have ever imagined it would be so well-loved.
“I remember the script advisor at the time saying to me, ‘This is going to make you a household name.’
“I didn’t really grasp what that was. I didn’t understand that it meant that I couldn’t go out in my dressing gown to buy a pint of milk. It completely changed my life.”
Peter Davison, 71, recalls thinking the series would tank after hearing a radio review by a real-life vet who said it was absolutely awful and nobody would want to watch it.
He says: “I remember thinking, ‘Oh well, that’s another one down the drain.’ Literally, about a month after that, we were getting about 18 million viewers.”
Carol believes emotionally stirring stories like All Creatures have enduring appeal for good reason.
She says: “You believe in the spirit of humanity when you watch these programmes. You believe that man is going to help man.
“Sure, there are tough moments in it, but they are tough moments where something comes good.”
The main credit for success should go to James Herriot/Alf Wight’s writing, she insists. “The storytelling is loving. It is full of generosity, gentle humour, and something that we lack so much today – life-enhancing moments, and we crave that so desperately.
“Even back then, Robert Hardy said, ‘We need this good uplifting material’ and that was when life was a great deal more harmonious than it is now.”
Peter, who also got his big break on the show, agrees its lightness was its charm.
He recalls the director deciding to include dogs in a scene at Skeldale House.
He says: “ The moment I knocked on the door the dogs started barking and chasing each other around the house. We carried on and Carol and I were both laughing through the whole scene. So that was what went out – us just laughing hysterically. But that was the magic of it.”
Carol initially turned down the role of Helen because a MeToo moment made her want to give up her acting career.
She was up for a part in a Hollywood film directed by Oscar-winner Elia Kazan – but found herself having to spurn the advances of the late Greek-American director.
She reveals: “I was going to be doing a film in America with Robert De Niro in the lead, but for ghastly reasons, MeToo reasons, I ended up not doing it.
“I had got my head into the fact that I was off to Hollywood so I turned down All Creatures.
“My agent said to me, ‘If you don’t take it I won’t represent you any more,’ and John Hurt, who I was filming with at the time, said I should do it.
“They were the reasons I decided to change my mind. I am so glad I did.”
Soon, millions of families were tuning in every Sunday night to watch the adventures of the Yorkshire vet.
Life began imitating art, as Carol and co-star Christopher fell in love.
Carol explains: “My relationship had fallen to pieces and Chris’s marriage was on the rocks.
“For the first six months or so we weren’t at all close or friendly, and then I think slowly, as our own lives were showing us a lot of disappointment, we sat in cars – that old Austin – for hours and hours, talking and sharing secrets.”
Carol says the pair weren’t right for each other, and believes Christopher, who soon met his wife, would agree.She adds: “We were a bridge for each other from pain to another relationship. I think we did help each other move on, and learn things.”
Their split caused nervousness among the other cast and crew.
Carol reveals: “The first scene we were doing together was getting into bed after we had got married. People were terribly worried.
“Chris turned round and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we know how to do this.’
“Everybody laughed and it completely broke the ice.”
Working on All Creatures was great fun for the cast.
Carol says: “Every day we would bellyache laugh. We all got on amazingly.”
And working with animals inevitably brought comedic moments. “Once a cow peed all over me,” she reveals. “The location was miles from our base and the BBC back then certainly didn’t have money for a second costume. There were all these cows behind me and one lifted up its tail and I suddenly felt all this warmth on my back. Everyone was killing themselves laughing.”
Playing a vet meant Peter also got close to the animals – and even had to put his hand up a cow’s bottom.
He says: “I did it with great trepidation. Worrying about it was worse than doing it.
“When I actually went to do it the only part of my body that was warm was my arm, because it was always so cold [on set].”
Another time involved filming, at 2am on a snowy night, the birth of a lamb.
Carol was overwhelmed. She recalls: “The director shouted cut. He said ‘Carol you can’t play the scene with your jaw-dropped to the floor, Helen would’ve seen this a thousand times’. We couldn’t go again as [the ewe] had given birth now so I had to mock it up. Moments like that made it such a wonderful show to work on.”
Peter says All Creatures cured him of his shyness, admitting: “It enabled me to find an outlet for what little personality I have and that has done my career no end of good.”
For Carol, now an author and living on an olive farm in France, there is only slight regret that the role of eccentric Mrs Pumphrey in the Channel 5 version went to the late Dame Diana Rigg, rather than to her.
She adds: “All Creatures, as fantastic as it still is, is part of my past, and I have a wonderful life now.
“But the show allows families and children to see the good things in life. And I think we all need that.”
