All Creatures Great and Small – 1974 | 92 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Enjoyable comedy-drama based on the novels of James Herriot, and chronicling the everyday experiences of a country vet in Yorkshire between the wars. A sequel, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet, was produced in 1975, and the books later found a natural home in the long-running BBC TV series. Inevitably episodic, and fairly sentimental, there’s a warm-hearted performances by Simon Ward, but the acting honours are wholly stolen by Anthony Hopkins who makes this inconsequential film entirely his own.

1937, Newly-qualified veterinarian James Herriot (Simon Ward) travels to Yorkshire to apply for the post of assistant in Siegfried Farnon’s (Anthony Hopkins) practice. He soon learns the facts of country life but struggles to overcome the prejudices of the Darrowby locals who are sceptical of the novice vets ability. The film’s highlights are the strenuous delivery of a newborn foal and Herriot’s fraught encounter with the colourful Mr Cranford (Freddie Jones); its most poignant moment is the putting to sleep of a seriously ill dog. In between “cases,” Herriot courts pretty farmer’s daughter Helen (Lisa Harrow).