TV Review: "All Creatures Great and Small" (Season 5)
The British series continues to provide a little island of calm, peace, and joy, making it a necessary balm in an increasingly dark, bleak, and uncertain world.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the series follow.
Every January I look forward to one television event more than any other: the premiere of a new season of All Creatures Great and Small. Ever since I started watching this show, way back in 2021, I’ve loved the chance to spend time with the people of Darrowby and the vets who take care of them and their animals. I’ve loved the way that this series wears its heart on its sleeve, inviting us to see the brightness and beauty in the world while also acknowledging that there is also no escaping the sadness and darkness of the world outside.
This season, the various characters all continue to grow and evolve as their circumstances, and the world around them, change, mostly for the better. There are, of course, the usual crises involving various creatures–a cat that accidentally ingests its owner’s painkiller, a dog who develops a phantom pregnancy, a ball python that slithers its way around Pomfrey Manor–but these are mostly resolved within the context of an episode. At the same time, the humans also have their own dramas to contend with, particularly since World War II is raging, meaning that everyone, from Mrs. Hall to James, has to figure out just what their role in the conflict is going to be in the formidable days ahead.
As has been the case since the beginning, this heartwarming series does a remarkably good job of finding the balance between the human and animal dramas. There’s lightness and fun, but there are also sorrows, as is inevitable when one works in veterinary care and agriculture. Part of the bargain one makes when one brings animals into one’s life–whether as a vet or as an owner–is that you know there are going to be times when you have to say goodbye. There are several heartbreakers in this fifth season, one of the most notable being the moment when Siegried and Mrs. Hall attempt to save a dog who has ingested poison, only for him to pass away. As it turns out, he belongs Jeremy Swift’s Mr. Bosworth, the pompous and hypervigilant warden. The passing of his dog gives him a chance to reconsider his behavior, and it allows us as viewers to see him as something other than a minor antagonist for Mrs. Hall. A sequence involving a fox that has become used to being around humans, and injured as a result, is another tear-jerking moment.
On the human side of things, James endures quite a lot, first as he continues his training in the RAF and then, after he’s discharged thanks to having contracted brucellosis. After he’s grounded, he learns that the men under his command were shot down during a training exercise, leaving them either dead or injured. This tragedy will haunt him for the rest of the season, and it’s not until the very end that he finally manages to make peace with what’s happened. Ralph, as always, manages to capture the many shades of James’ character, and it’s been particularly rewarding to watch him navigate the contradiction between his desire to serve his country in the armed forces while also following his heart and his calling as a vet.
Of course, no season of All Creatures Great and Small would be complete without several appearances from both Mrs. Pumphrey and Tricki. I know this might be controversial, but I think I actually prefer Patricia Hodge’s take on the character to Diana Rigg’s, and I particularly enjoyed the scenes which she shares with Anna Madeley’s Mrs. Hall. These two women end up having a great deal in common, despite their different class positions. Both have lost men in their lives, and both have endured the horrors of one world war, only to find themselves bracing for another. The women of All Creatures are some of its unsung heroes, and it’s nice to see them get some time in the spotlight.
And speaking of Mrs. Hall…man does Anna Madeley shine in this season, particularly in the Christmas Special. The crux of this episode is the fate of her son Edward, whose whereabouts are unknown after his ship is sunk by the Japanese. As Mrs. Hall becomes ever more convinced that he’s been killed, she begins to grieve, and Madeley gives the performance of a lifetime, perfectly capturing the anguish of a mother who knows she will probably never see her son again. Fortunately, it turns out that he’s alive after all, and her joy at this is just as beautiful, and heart wrenching, to watch. (There’s also the faintest suggestion that Edward may have a same-sex relationship with his friend, Paddy, but it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment). The whole episode features some of Madeley’s best character work to date.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the much-welcome return of Callum Woodhouse’s Tristan, who returns from service in Egypt a more mature man, though one with the same rascally tendencies as before. It’s a true delight to see Samuel West and Woodhouse back together as brothers Siegried and Tristan, particularly since it takes them both some negotiation to figure out just how their dynamic is going to work. Neither of them is the same man they were before Tristan left–Siegried even has a love interest this season!--but they figure it out. Tristan’s return ultimately means that James Anthony-Rose’s Carmody will depart but, fortunately, he gets a proper send-off by earning a prestigious research position in London, though with the awareness that there will always be a place for him at Skeldale.
One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this show is its ability to be sincere without being cloying. These are all good people who are doing the very best that they can, both for one another and for various residents of Skelldale and the nearby Dales. It’s so easy these days to lose sight of the good things in life, but All Creatures Great and Small reminds us of the beauty and the goodness and the joy of both our animal companions and the people with whom we share the world. On a more personal note, All Creatures Great and Small gives me a feeling of connecting with my own rural roots. Sure, I didn’t grow up in the Yorkshire Dales, Appalachia isn’t all that much different, either, and my grandfather was just the type of small farmer we see so often in the show (in fact, Helen’s father reminds me more than a bit of him). Watching this series gives me a chance to indulge in some rather bittersweet nostalgia, conjuring up a world that was fading even when I was a child and which has now gone beyond anything but memory.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am very relieved that a sixth season has already been greenlit. We’re all about to enter into a very dark and somber time, and it will be nice to have at least one show that reminds us that there is goodness and light and kindness in the world, that coming together with our communities and our families is a key source of strength and survival. More to the point, I’m sure that I won’t be the only one who simply wants to escape into another world for an hour at a time, one that is not without its troubles, of course, but still one that revolves around and values such things as decency, goodness, and public spiritedness.
Let’s hope that someday, in the future, our own world can be more like that of All Creatures Great and Small.