It’s not just the animals that take center stage on PBS’s All Creatures Great and Small. In the fifth season of Masterpiece’s positively poignant British dramedy, based on veterinarian James Herriot’s beloved books, the humans are stepping outside their usual roles as World War II continues to impact the pastoral Yorkshire community of Darrowby in 1941.
For executive producer Debbie O’Malley, who wrote two of the season’s seven episodes, that presented a challenge. “The things people love about the show are the warmth and the humor and the sense of community,” she says. “We wanted to preserve all of that but also not do a disservice to the very real hardships and sacrifices that people made.”
Two of Skeldale House’s animal docs already have left to serve their country: Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, and James (Nicholas Ralph) as the pilot of a Royal Air Force bomber crew that’s introduced in the first episode. “James is the skipper of this small team of young lads,” Ralph previews. “Having a little more life experience, he takes that very seriously and wants to take the boys under his wing.”
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Both men soon come home, but under different circumstances. As James readjusts to civilian life with his wife, Helen (Rachel Shenton), he finally has the chance to be a parent to his baby son, Jimmy. Caring for animals is easier. Says O’Malley, “All the fun mistakes that a new dad can sometimes make were very entertaining to work on.”
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Fun-loving Tristan, meanwhile, who was absent from the previous season, clashes with the veterinary student who replaced him, studious Richard Carmody (James Anthony-Rose), and reconnects, not always smoothly, with his sometimes trying brother, senior vet Siegfried (Samuel West). In addition to looking after pets and livestock, Siegfried finds himself tending to dinner after housekeeper Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley) becomes an air raid warden.
“That does take a bit of adjustment from the rest of the household, because she has always been there catering to everyone else’s needs,” O’Malley says. “Now, in an extension of that selfless spirit, she wants to do more for the community as a whole.”
Mrs. Hall’s new gig means she’s working with the often overbearing Mr. Bosworth (Ted Lasso’s Jeremy Swift). Other additions to the cast include the babies who play little Jimmy. Ralph reports that they were pros: “It could be challenging at times, but they really affected some of the scenes in a positive way.” In one, James and Helen were in the midst of a crucial conversation about their son when the baby fell asleep. “That just added another layer to the scene,” Ralph explains. “Me and Rachel had to play it almost sotto voce, almost whispering to one another.”
And it’s experiences like that which the actor has come to embrace, along with his character, who has grown from novice vet to skilled practitioner. “What’s wonderful about James is he is this everyman,” Ralph says. “I love playing him because I get stretched in different ways as an actor every year.”
All Creatures Great and Small, Season 5 Premiere Sunday, January 12, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)
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