All Creatures Great and Small: The dales locations starring in the new series

IT’S not just the starry cast of actors that shine in the latest heart-warming adventures of young country vet James Herriot – the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales landscape and stone-built villages dazzled the 4.7 million viewers of the last series of the timeless classic. “Herriot country” has come to personify the dales since Thirsk vet Alf Wight wrote his bestselling books under the Herriot pen name that have never been out of print since the 1970s.

As series two of the latest adaptation for television is due to air on Channel 5, production designer Jackie Smith of Ripon reveals the locations used to recreate dales life in the 1930s. Grassington stars again as the fictional Darrowby, where James Herriot works for Siegfried Farnon.

“We use Grassington for shooting most of our Darrowby exteriors including the outside of the Drovers (The Devonshire) and the market square,” says Jackie. “The beautiful village of Arncliffe also features as a part of Darrowby. We use a farm there as the back of Skeldale house where Siegfried and James keep their cars and larger animals are looked after post-surgery.

"The interior of the Drovers is shot in the Green Dragon Inn in Hardraw, near Hawes. This season the production filmed at Ripley Castle for the Renniston Hotel, grand Sawley Hall in Nidderdale for The Seabright Saunders estate, St Wilfred’s church hall in Harrogate was fictitious Brawton village hall, Broughton Hall, near Skipton returns as Mrs Pumphrey’s house and Birstwith Hall, near Harrogate, for Colonel Merrick’s home. Yockenthwaite farm in Langstrothdale, near Hawes was filmed for character Helen’s farm Heston Grange exterior and a set was built for the interior in the studio in Summerbridge in Nidderdale.

All Creatures Great and Small: Series 2. The Alderson farm

“The Ritz cinema in Thirsk was a favourite location as this was the cinema that Alf Wight (James Herriot) would have gone to,” says Jackie. “We transformed the surrounding shops and the interior of the cinema to help make it work for 1938. It was lovely to see all the positive reactions we had from local people who enjoyed reminiscing, as I used archive photographs to quite faithfully reinstate original signage and posters.

“We also loved working with the team at Studley cricket club and the National Trust at Studley Royal deer park to recreate Mrs Pumphrey’s annual cricket match at the small cricket ground tucked away in the park.”

Time has moved on a little since series one, so did Jackie need to change any of the set decor? Or has time stood still in the Yorkshire Dales?

“We made a few improvements to the standing set of Skeldale house, hopefully the eagle-eyed viewer will spot them. We gave an increased focus to showing a seasonal arc in the series to reflect how they impact the everyday lives of the characters through ensuring that the housekeeper Mrs Hall’s produce was all seasonally correct, and that flowers and décor were appropriate.

All Creatures Great and Small: Series 2. The Darrowby Village set

“We changed some of the shops and added more for Darrowby, building bespoke units for each shop that were pre-dressed so that we could be as quick and discreet as possible when it came to dressing these sets to minimise the impact we had on locals’ trading.”

She adds that new prosthetics made for the series this year. “We had a couple of halves of cows, a horse, sheep and lambs plus pigs’ heads. We have a brilliant prosthetics maker called Pauline Fowler at Animated Extras, who made the most life-like creations and always insisted we try them out by putting our hands in, as it were.

"There is always particular attention to the many period action props required for the vets and for Mrs Hall and we discuss these in detail with the actors to ensure they are happy and that they are correct for period.

“We also reflect the impending shadow of the war in radio broadcasts, but this is not dominant yet in the show as life in the dales has to go on as usual. So yes, to some extent time stands still but there are always changes and improvements to be made.”

Jackie says that the people, landscape and the sense of community make filming All Creatures Great and Small a joy. “Perhaps these are clichés, but they are true, nevertheless. Oh, and we enjoy the many fine bakeries and cafes in the dales, which we may have visited on too many occasions for the comfort of our waistlines.”

All Creatures Great and Small: Series 2. The Darrowby Village set

If you want to see the house and practice where Alf Wight lived and worked, and the inspiration for his books, the World of James Herriot attraction in Thirsk is in the real Skeldale House.

As you enter the hallway and see a tweed coat on the hat-stand and walk through to the family’s rooms and surgery, it’s like a film set, dressed in 1940s décor. But in fact, the home retains many of the original furnishings in the family rooms, frozen in time. The dining room doubled as the practice office, where farmers’ bills were typed up at the desk; the sitting room displays original books and family photos; the basement was converted to an air raid shelter during the Second World War; the breakfast room was favoured for its relative warmth, and you can see a reproduction of a typical farmhouse kitchen. You can view the primitive consulting room and the car Wight drove too. Children get to put their arm inside a cow or sheep in the interactive gallery. It’s the Memorabilia Room with its posters and merchandise that reminds you how there were two hit films, starring John Alderton and Simon Ward as James and the 1970s hit TV series starring Christopher Timothy.

Scottish newcomer Nicholas Ralph in the Channel 5 series from Playground production company now captures hearts as James, with his unconventional mentor, Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West), matriarch of Skeldale House Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley), and independent local farmer’s daughter Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), alongside a characterful ensemble of farmers, animals and townsfolk living in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. Patricia Hodge joins the cast this series as Mrs Pumphrey, owner of Tricky Woo the Pekingese – the part played by the late Diana Rigg.

The six new episodes are expected to be broadcast from Thursday, September 16 at 9pm on Channel 5, followed by a second Christmas special.