All Creatures Great and Small (TV series)

All Creatures Great and Small
Cast of All Creatures Great and Small, circa 1978: Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Peter Davison, Mary Hignett and Carol Drinkwater
Genre	Comedy-drama
Created by	Bill Sellars
Written by	James Herriot
Directed by	Peter Grimwade
Starring	Christopher Timothy Robert Hardy Peter Davison Carol Drinkwater Mary Hignett John McGlynn Margaretta Scott Lynda Bellingham (list of characters)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	90 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Bill Sellars
Running time	48 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	8 January 1978 (1978-01-08) – 24 December 1990 (1990-12-24)

All Creatures Great and Small is a British television series based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. In 1977, the BBC tasked producer Bill Sellars with the creation of a television series from Herriot's first two novels, If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, using the title of the 1975 film adaptation.

The series had two runs: the original (1978 to 1980, based directly on Herriot's books) was for three series; the second (1988 to 1990, filmed with original scripts) for four. Ninety episodes were broadcast in the six-year period.

The leading role is played by Christopher Timothy. Simon Ward (who had played the part in the 1975 film), John Alderton (who had replaced Ward in the sequel, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet) and Richard Beckinsale all turned down the role. Bill Sellars had wanted to give the role to Timothy from the outset, but the powers that be wanted to cast the role. Sellars, therefore, asked Timothy if he would accept the role of Tristan Farnon. "I had a wife, I had children, I had a mortgage to pay, and I wasn't working. So I said, 'No. It's Herriot or nothing.'" Timothy put everything on the line. "I got home one night, at about 9 o'clock. My wife was washing up in the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and she said, without turning round, 'You've got the Herriot part.'" Timothy also stated that, after all of the roles had been cast except that of Herriot, one of the directors said, "Why don't we give [the Herriot part] to Christopher Timothy and make him a name?" In 2003, Timothy said that Alf Wight wrote him a letter after the series started, saying "You are the Herriot I wrote about".

The cantankerous and eccentric Siegfried Farnon, based on Wight's real life partner Donald Sinclair, is played by Robert Hardy. "We all had a meeting together in London," recalls Hardy, "and Bill Sellars said, 'Now, these characters are all based on real people. None of you are to meet these people until we have made at least three episodes.' So I immediately got into my car and fled up to Yorkshire to meet my man, Donald Sinclair. I was intrigued beyond measure by him. He was a true eccentric and, like all true eccentrics, he had no idea himself how odd he was! He absolutely hated what I did, because he had no idea he was at all like that, but when we'd really got into it and were producing them at high speed, his friends used to come to me and say, 'You've got him, that's him.'"