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Airdate: All Creatures Great & Small

Rebooted UK drama has its Free to Air broadcast on ABC next week.

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Rebooted UK drama All Creatures Great & Small will have its Free to Air broadcast on ABC next week.

The 2020 reboot, based on a series of books written by Alf Wight, under the pen name of James Herriot originally screened in a hit series from 1978 to 1990.

This version has been airing on BritBox and was renewed for Seasons 3 & 4 by Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece (US).

Fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, James Herriot follows his dream to become a vet in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales. He soon discovers that treating the animals is as much about treating their owners, and the Dales’ famers are a tough crowd to please. At Skeldale House, James gets to know his newly formed dysfunctional family; his chaotic and erratic boss Siegfried Farnon, Siegfried’s wayward brother Tristan and the shrewd Mrs Hall who is endlessly steering the ship. When local beauty Helen Alderson attracts James’s attention he finds another, more enduring reason to stay in the Dales.

Episode One – You’ve Got to Dream
It’s 1937 and Glasgow is in the grip of depression. James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, is struggling to find work. Under pressure from his mother to take a job on the docks, James wants to follow his dream and seizes an opportunity to interview for a job as a veterinary assistant in Yorkshire.

James arrives in Darrowby village nestled among the magnificent rolling hills of the Dales. He meets Siegfried Farnon, his potential new boss who is idiosyncratic and chaotic, and his shrewd housekeeper Mrs Hall. James is immediately thrown into the deep end when Siegfried takes him out to the local farms to put his skills to the test. James has to conquer his nerves and trust in his abilities as he treats his first client; a horse with an infected foot. It’s gruelling work. James ends up battered and bruised and Siegfried remains inscrutable at his efforts.

Saturday January 22 8:30pm on ABC.

5 Responses

  1. Will probably watch this. The early seasons of the original were good (thought it ran out of steam a bit by the end).

    Anyone else remember the prequel mini series? Young James Herriot (2011) starring Iain De Caestecker, his pre Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. days. 🙂

  2. More arms up cows…even the BBC seems to have run out of original ideas and given how perfect the original cast and locations were, no room for improvement.

  3. It’s not a reboot of the BBC series. It another adaption of All Creatures Great And Small and It Shouldn’t Happen To A Vet. One that has higher production values and uses a Scottish actor to play James Herriot and sticks to the main story of the novels, but doesn’t follow these books as closely as the film or the first two seasons of the BBC series did. It will be interesting to see what they do for S3 & 4. The BBC series continued the story in it’s own way, got cancelled after S3, then they did 2 one off Christmas Specials a couple of years later, then three years later made another 4 seasons.

  5. A masterstroke decision to watch this show (on BritBox) with our two young children
    recently. A nostalgic experience for me (having watched the original with my Yorkshire-born parents) and an exciting weekly experience for them, as their first foray beyond the limitations of children’s television. Can’t wait to do it again with Season 2.

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