TV Talk: PBS reboots ‘All Creatures Great and Small’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

It’s difficult to imagine a better TV balm coming off the annus horibilis that was 2020 than the latest production from “Masterpiece,” celebrating its 50th anniversary with the debut of a remake of an early PBS drama hit, “All Creatures Great and Small” (9 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 21, WQED-TV).

Like the original 1978-90 British import, this new series is also based on James Herriot’s books about his adventures as a new veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire.

The first two (of seven) episodes offer a fair amount of set-up as James (Nicholas Ralph) moves from Glasgow to Darrowby for a job as an assistant to pompous veterinarian Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West).

By episode two, James has also met Siegfried’s wayward brother, Tristan (Callum Woodhouse); Farnon’s housekeeper, Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley), farmer’s daughter, Helen (Rachel Shenton) and the eccentric Mrs. Pumphrey (the late Dame Diana Rigg) and her Pekingese dog Tricki-Woo, not to mention assorted cats and cows in need of mending.

It all goes down with the utmost of ease aided by lingering shots of the countryside and twee towns. Early episodes are directed by Brian Percival, who directed the first episode of “Downton Abbey,” and “All Creatures” creates a milieu that welcomes viewers to sink into it in the same way “Downton” did from the start.

Already renewed for a second season that is expected to film this year, executive producer Colin Callender said producers never considered updating the time period, setting or family-friendly tone of the series.

“We felt that the psychological underpinning of the characters could be explored more fully,” he said in a July teleconference with reporters. “We felt that the role of women in this society could be dramatized more fully and center stage. We clearly had the opportunity to shoot on sort of glorious high-definition technology that would bring the world of the (Yorkshire) Dales back to life. … I had forgotten that until I reread the books, but theres enormous humor in the books, and I think that comes through in the series.”

But working with animals creates its challenges. For a scene with an injured calf, actress Rachel Shenton discovered an unforeseen consequence of trying to make nice with an animal co-star.

“We did a couple takes, and (the director) Brian came over to me and whispered into my ear, ‘Can you stop stroking her between takes, because she’s falling asleep and she needs to look stressed?’”

Series lead Nicholas Ralph said the rules around the use of animals in entertainment changed just prior to filming.

“You cant do anything to an animal that, one, it doesn’t require and, two, you’re not trained to do. So, of course, anything like birthing a calf we needed a prosthetic,” he said. “What they came up with was the back end of a cow, a half a cow prosthetic so I could reach in and simulate birthing this calf.”

Unlike some British productions, “All Creatures” focuses on a lower socio-economic class, particularly when it comes to the farmers whose animals require veterinary care. Callender notes in many cases the animals are their owner’s livelihoods.

“One farmer could have one cow. If that cow gets ill and dies, it would cause untold financial trouble,” Callender said. “That relationship between the animals and their owners and the vet and that dynamic is right to the core of all the stories. There’s a line somewhere that Siegfried says to James, ‘It is not the animals you need to worry about, it is the humans you have to worry about.’”