What a rum state of affairs it is when, in the same prime time slot, BBC One is punting out a tacky Love Island knock-off called Stranded On Honeymoon Island while Channel 5 is producing another series of the classy All Creatures Great and Small. Once upon a time, it would have been the other way round. The BBC was actually given first refusal on the James Herriot adaptation but turned it down on the basis that it would not appeal to young viewers (who are all looking at YouTube anyway). It’s their loss, because All Creatures remains the ultimate comfort watch. Just for an hour, you can retreat from the real world and immerse yourself in Darrowby.
For this sixth series, we’ve skipped forward to May 1945. It opens, as ever, with images of the glorious Yorkshire Dales. But Skeldale House is in a state. Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley) has moved to Sunderland to look after her son, who was injured when his ship was sunk by the Japanese. Siegfried has not been able to find another housekeeper who is up to snuff. Oh, who are we kidding? Siegfried hasn’t been able to find another housekeeper with whom he is, though he hasn’t admitted it to himself, hopelessly in love. And so he is subsisting on tins of sardines and living in a complete tip, with rats in the pantry and a pony in the hall.
James and Tristan (Nicholas Ralph and Callum Woodhouse) resolve to get Mrs Hall back. Tristan has returned from the front line, a more mature and introspective character than he was when we first met him. The pair convince Mrs Hall to return for a few days, just to get the house in order, but I think we all know that she’ll be staying for longer than that.
As Siegfried, Samuel West is a wonderfully irascible presence. In this episode, he takes to criticising James over the quality of his work (this week’s veterinary business involves an arthritic sheepdog). “You did use rather a lot of suture. You were only a couple of stitches short of the Bayeux Tapestry,” he sniffs, assessing James’s surgical skills. Siegfried is such an entertaining character that James and his wife (Rachel Shenton) are, dare I say it, rather dull by comparison.
Channel 5’s All Creatures remains the ultimate comfort watch – Channel 5
The writers know that the will-they-won’t-they between Siegfried and Mrs Hall is one of the show’s greatest pulls, and in this episode we get as close as we ever have to a declaration of feelings. Siegfried makes a last-minute dash to the train station to prevent Mrs Hall leaving. Of course they don’t declare their real feelings for one another, but it’s still rather lovely. He even calls her by her first name (Audrey, if you’d forgotten), and it’s 10 times more romantic than anything happening in Stranded on Honeymoon Island.
All Creatures Great and Small is on Channel 5 on September 25 at 9pm
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