The doctor and the dear cattle

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Television series
German title The doctor and the dear cattle
Original title All Creatures Great and Small
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Year (s) 1977 - 1990
length 50 minutes
Episodes 87 in 7 seasons
genre Comedy , drama
idea James Herriot
production Bill Sellars
music Johnny Pearson
First broadcast Jan 8th 1978 on BBC
German-language
first broadcast		 February 4, 1979 on ARD
occupation

All Creatures Great and Small (original title All Creatures Great and Small , in literal translation All creatures great and small ) is the title of a BBC - TV series of the late 1970s and the 1980s years in the Yorkshire Dales plays. It is based on the stories of the veterinarian James Herriot .

The TV series dealt with in this article must be distinguished from the feature film of the same name, which appeared in 1974.

basis

The series is based on the stories of the British veterinarian James Alfred Wight (1916-1995), which he published under the pseudonym James Herriot .

The original English title of the series goes back to a line in an Anglican hymn:

All Things Bright and Beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
The Lord God made them all. 		All things clear and beautiful
All beings big and small
All wise and wonderful
The Lord made them.

content

Seasons 1 to 3

Skeldale House (right) in Askrigg is in the series Seat of Practice, photographed in 2013

The first 3 seasons appeared from 1978 to 1980. They are set in the late 1930s.

In the summer of 1937, the young, freshly licensed veterinarian James Herriot travels to the (fictional) town of Darrowby in the Yorkshire Dales to see the as yet unknown veterinarian Siegfried Farnon , who runs a country practice there and has offered James a job as an assistant.

Siegfried is a responsible and technically excellent veterinarian, but also a very moody choleric with constant new ideas, who tends to criticize his employees for no reason and to change his views again and again. After James, who was initially rather shy and unconfident, learned how to deal with it, they got along well.

Other people in the Skeldale House practice building are Siegfried's resolute housekeeper Edna Hall and his much younger brother Tristan, who is famously involved in the practice and with his schoolboy-like quirks and hedonistic lifestyle repeatedly causes entanglements. Tristan also wants to become a good veterinarian, but he lacks the ambition to work for it, and so he regularly fails exams, which keeps Siegfried, who sees himself as Tristan in the role of father, angry. Only at the very end of season 3 does Tristan receive his license to practice medicine .

During a home visit, James falls in love with the farmer's daughter, Helen Alderson ; On the occasion of their wedding towards the end of the first season, Siegfried promoted James from assistant to partner of the practice without being asked.

The series draws its charm on the one hand from the tensions that arise from the different characters of the protagonists, on the other hand from the bizarre peculiarities of the cattle farmers and pet owners in Yorkshire. Stingy farmers only call in the vet when it is too late for treatment and then criticize him for his ineptitude. On the other hand, Herriot's most grateful patient turns out to be the pampered lap dog Tricki-Woo, an overweight Pekingese who he really only has to protect from being spoiled to death with cream cake and chocolates by his well-meaning owner, the rich aging widow Mrs. Pumphrey .

In the 2nd and 3rd seasons, the threatening Second World War begins to overshadow peaceful life. Season 3 ends with Siegfried and James volunteering for the Royal Air Force . Since no new assistant could be found, Tristan continues the practice alone.

Production initially ended here, as no further material was available from Herriot's books.

Christmas specials

In 1983 and 1985, two Christmas specials appeared, each with a length of 89 minutes. They tie in with the third season of the series and continue the plot.

James returns from the war earlier than expected, but only gradually finds his way back to his former serenity. Herriots have two children with Jimmy and Rosie , Siegfried marries his lover Caroline and moves into another house with her, and after Tristan, to everyone's surprise, starts a job at the Department of Agriculture, Skeldale House is only lived in and managed by the Herriot family. The house has been redesigned compared to the first three seasons and now has a beautiful garden in place of the old courtyard.

Since the actress from Mrs. Hall died shortly after the end of production of the 3rd season, one looks for a new housekeeper in the Christmas specials and after a few failures she is found in Mrs. Greenlaw, who helps Helen.

Following the last season 7, another Christmas special was released in 1990, with a largely fictitious plot.

Seasons 4 to 7

Bolton Castle , one of the locations in the series

In 1985, the decision was made to continue the series and, in terms of plot, tied in with the Christmas specials. The author of the underlying books had meanwhile put further narratives on paper on which these further seasons are based.

The four seasons produced between 1988 and 1990 take place after the end of World War II in the 1950s. A statement by James in season 4 shows that the engagement to Helen was 12 years ago, in season 5 they celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. In season 6, episode 2, the English King George VI dies . (February 6, 1952); in season 7, episode 6, his successor Elizabeth II is crowned (June 2, 1953).

The stories of seasons 4 to 7 are largely based on stories by James Herriot, but are embellished with numerous freely invented additions and additional storylines. The characters and narrative threads from the first three seasons are also taken up and continued, mostly with different actors.

A new character appears with Scottish young veterinarian Calum Buchanan entering the practice in Season 4. Calum is a fellow student of Tristan. He is technically excellent, but of an eccentric character, chaotically organized, and to Siegfried's desperation he has a considerable zoo of foster animals with him. Several times he is successful with naturopathic treatments after conventional medicine has failed. The development of the relationship with his girlfriend Deirdre is described in detail . At the beginning of season 6 he received such an enticing professional offer as a wildlife veterinarian in Nova Scotia that he, newly married, left the Farnon-Herriot practice, which he also admired very much.

Tristan Farnon occasionally helps out in the practice in Season 4. At the beginning of season 5 he resigns his position in the Ministry of Agriculture and participates full-time in the practice again, but is shortly afterwards sent to Ireland on a deployment of several months , so that he is in seasons 5 (from episode 5) and 6 with the exception of a short one The appearance at Calum's wedding is completely missing and only appears again in season 7, in episodes 1 - 5, 8, 11 - 12.

Since Skeldale House is way too big for the Herriot family, they move into a slightly outlying house called Rowangarth in season 5 . The London bank clerk Andrew Bruce , a school friend of James who does not come from Herriot's books, visits several times .

Starting in season 4, Helen is portrayed by Lynda Bellingham after Carol Drinkwater had to leave the set because of an affair with Timothy. In the German dubbing, James has a new voice from season 4, Siegfried from season 6.

Locations

Most of the exterior shots for the series were created in the Yorkshire Dales, where the underlying stories are set. The majority of the locations are in the Swaledale and Wensleydale valleys and their side valleys.

City scenes from "Darrowby" were filmed in numerous different locations:

Wensleydale

  • Askrigg (it says "Skeldale House")
  • Leyburn (here is, among other Thornborough Hall that as the Ministry of Agriculture Mannerton acts, in a sequence as City Hall Darrowby , and the train station, is picked up at the Tristan in Season 1 of James)
  • Middleham (quite a few scenes in shops)
  • East Witton
  • Redmire
  • Wensley
  • Finghall Lane Station (as Rainby Halt from season 5)

Swaledale

  • Reeth
  • Muker
  • Grinton
  • Low row
  • Langthwaite (Arkengarthdale)
  • Ellerton Priory in the grounds of the Ellerton Abbey mansion , home of Mrs. Pumphrey

Other valleys

  • West Scrafton, Coverdale, is sold as Scarburn , among other places , where horse expert Ewan Ross lives. The filming location for the Rowangarth house is just outside southwest of it .
  • Coverham Abbey , Coverdale, to see u. a. in the episode "The Call of the Wild". Coverham Bridge was also used as a filming location just below the river.

James' first arrival in Darrowby in the first episode was filmed in the town square of Richmond . At the lonely country road junction where the bus stops in front of it ( 54 ° 26 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 1 ° 53 ′ 19.5 ″  W ), a signpost shows the real names of the surrounding places for the only time (Helwith / Hurst / Marske / Richmond). Otherwise, the place names on street signs and signposts in the series are also purely fictitious.

Outside the Yorkshire Dales

  • Egglestone Abbey served as Raine Abbey in the episode "Nothing Like Experience" , the setting for the spirit monk played by Tristan.
  • Goathland Station as the train station of the fictional town of Mannerton in season 4
  • The fictional town of Hensfield
  • North Sea Beach Runswick Sands (a family outing with Andrew Bruce)

A privately managed list of outdoor locations can be found under Web Links .

All interior shots of Skeldale House were made in the studio.

Directors

The studio structure of the small animal practice is now in the James Herriot Museum in Thirsk

synchronization

The village of Reeth in Swaledale, one of the filming locations for Darrowby
character actor German
voice actor
James Herriot Christopher Timothy Elmar Wepper (seasons 1–3)
Arnim André (seasons 4–7)
Helen Herriot Carol Drinkwater (seasons 1-3) Eva Mattes , Iris Berben (Season 3)
Lynda Bellingham (seasons 4-7) Ursula Mellin
Siegfried Farnon Robert Hardy Erik Schumann (seasons 1–5)
Klaus Höhne (Seasons 6 + 7)
Tristan Farnon Peter Davison Ivar Combrinck

(Source: German synchronous card index)

museum

Entrance to the museum (2013)

After Donald Sinclair, the literary role model for Siegfried , the last of James A. Wight's colleagues died, the practice rooms in Thirsk, 23 Kirkgate, were redesigned to form the James Herriot Museum, which, in addition to the books and the real person of Herriot, also included the TV series themed. For this purpose, the studio backdrops used in the production, including the film equipment, were set up in the rooms. Visitors can look at and try out numerous things, work as a veterinarian or appear in the series afterwards. The museum is now called The world of James Herriot (German: "The world of James Herriot").

The original paraphernalia from Wight's actual practice can be seen at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming .

Trivia

  • The Farnon brothers have the first names of main characters from Wagner operas because their father, also a veterinarian, was a lover of Wagner's music. Siegfried trills well-known Wagner melodies from time to time in the series.
  • Tristan and James sing the song On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at , which is considered the unofficial national anthem of Yorkshire, on boozy evenings, but also when they are out and about on house calls .
  • During the filming there was an affair between Christopher Timothy and Carol Drinkwater , who play the Herriot couple in the series. Since Timothy was already separated from his wife, with whom he had six children, but was still formally married to her, the affair was turned into a scandal by British tabloids.
  • In the cartoon series The Simpsons , a pet shop is called based on the original English title All Creatures Great and Cheap .
  • A British feature film with the same title was made as early as 1974. Anthony Hopkins plays Siegfried Farnon in it.
  • After the fictional place in which the practice of the Herriot stories is located, an inn on the market square of Thirsk, only a few hundred meters from Wight's practice rooms, was named "The Darrowby Inn".

literature

  • Jim Wight: The Real James Herriot: The Authorized Biography Penguin Books, 2000, ISBN 0140268812

expenditure

DVD

"The Darrowby Inn" on the market square of Thirsk
  • In July 2007 the DVD for the first season was released with German synchronization
  • In June 2008 the DVD for the second season was released with German synchronization, including the two episodes that have not yet been broadcast in Germany (episodes 16 and 25)
  • In September 2008 the DVD for the third season was released with German synchronization
  • In December 2008 the DVD for the fourth season was released with German synchronization and the two Christmas specials from 1983 and 1985 in the original language with German subtitles
  • In March 2009 the DVD for the fifth season was released with German synchronization
  • In May 2009 the DVD for the sixth season was released with German synchronization
  • In September 2009, the seventh and final season with German synchronization and the Christmas special Brotherly Love from 1990 appeared in the original language with German subtitles.
  • In December 2009 a DVD with the Christmas special from 1983 and 1985 was released in German.
  • Since the end of 2008, all seven seasons and the Christmas special have been available in the UK in full and in the original language.
  • In October 2010 a box was released that contains all seven seasons, including the three Christmas specials with German synchronization. The box is designed in the shape of the company car featured in the series.

Books

The books on which the series is based are available in German translation from Rowohlt , Reinbek near Hamburg.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Veterinarians are fundamentally important for the livestock industry and thus for the food supply of the country and were therefore released from military service in the event of a defense ("reserved occupation").
  2. ^ Website of the German synchronous index, accessed on January 17, 2015
  3. ^ Museum website, accessed August 2, 2013
  4. ↑ Graham Lord: James Herriot: the life of a country vet. ( google books )