Samuel West spoke about meeting Peter Wright for the Christmas crossover programme.
While fans of All Creatures Great and Small will no doubt be looking forward to this year’s Christmas special, the show also has another treat for fans first, with a crossover programme with The Yorkshire Vet set to air directly before the new episode.
The crossover programme will see Yorkshire vets Peter Wright and Shona Searson, the former of whom was James Herriot’s real-life apprentice, entering the world of Darrowby and going behind the scenes of filming.
Samuel West, who plays Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures, spoke with RadioTimes.com and other press about meeting Wright and Searson for the programme, and what he learned from the experience.
West said: “I learnt a lot about Donald from Peter because he studied with him and was there. And I also learned a lot about him from Andy, Andy Barrett, our on set vet who also studied with him. But yeah, I had a very good time.”
He continued: “It’s fascinating because he’s lived his own life from basically the point where Donald stopped, Donald Sinclair, the real life Seigfried Farnon I mean, to now where he’s still working, and seen the huge changes in, particularly dairy herds, and going from visiting a farm to do a pregnancy test on one cow to visiting the farm for an entire day to do 300.
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“And it’s almost not the same job. In fact, there aren’t really practices that do the split farm animal/small animal thing anymore, unless they’re in West Scotland, or some archipelago, because they’re such different things. So yeah, it was really interesting.”
The programme will air directly before this year’s All Creatures Christmas special, which will see James hoping to get home from the RAF air base at which he is stationed to see his pregnant wife Helen for Christmas.
Nicholas Ralph, who plays James in the show, spoke about what fans can expect from his storyline in the episode, saying: “He’s probably been away now for about four months, so it’s a long time to be away from your significant other.
“And he misses Helen hugely, and she’s pregnant, and like he says before he leaves, things are a lot different now than when he signed up.
“When he signed up Helen wasn’t pregnant, things were very, very different. And if she was back then, who knows what decision he would have made.
“So yeah, missing her hugely and missing the family, but also finding this camaraderie and this kind of brotherly love – and thank God for that. Thank God for these young men that he’s surrounded by, that they’ve got each other as well.”
All Creatures Great and Small: Yorkshire Vet Special will air at 8pm on 21st December on Channel 5. Watch all episodes on My5. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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