All Creatures Great & Small (1978 series): Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Gloriously old school original series of the Yorkshire vet adventures
Year: 1978-1990
Certificate: pg
A preponderance of ale, whisky and cigarettes is what the viewer new to this original 70s version of James Herriot's stories of life as a Yorkshire vet will notice. The only time anyone stops smoking is to start drinking, or vice versa. But these are the 30s, after all, and for all the beer-swilling, the show is as warm and snug as a tea cosy.
Christopher Timothy finds a dozen ways an episode to communicate ingenuous charm as new boy James Herriot, but Robert Hardy, as the wiser old hand Siegfried Farnon, has all the greatest lines. Watch out too for a pre-Doctor Who Peter Davison as lovable if sometimes lazy vet Tristan Farnon, Siegfried's younger brother.
Best of all is the scenery: why do the Yorkshire Dales never look so sunny in the summer, or so magically frosty in the winter, when you're actually there? (Seven series, plus three Christmas specials).
