Watching comforting mystery television, particularly in winter, is a concept so nice that I’ve written about it twice. It’s a form I’ll always love and cherish, but if the long march of time has done anything, it’s inspired me to plumb new depths of coziness. While the cozy mystery is a leader in its field, it’s not the only genre of comforting TV out there. Sometimes when seeking comfy television, even a lighthearted chamber mystery feels too tense. Sometimes you need a show to be like slipping into a warm bath, unchallenging and comforting. Sometimes you need to visit a verdant, pastoral fantasy where people who are as good-looking as they are good-hearted care for hearty farm animals and adorable pets. Sometimes you need a show like All Creatures Great and Small. Thank all the lucky stars out there that it’s finally coming back on PBS Masterpiece on January 12th for its fifth season.
Based on the works of James Herriot aka James Alfred Wight, the series follows a fictionalized James as he works as a veterinary surgeon in the Yorkshire Dales. There have been other series and feature film adaptations, but this incarnation began in 2020 and follows the same basic narrative path. In the late 1930s, James (Nicholas Ralph) arrives in the fictional Dalish village of Darrowby where the grump-with-a-heart-of-gold Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West) runs a veterinary clinic out of Skeldale House. Siegfried is initially skeptical when James applies for work, but James wins him over with earnestness, pluck, and tenacity; he’s a gifted vet, and it doesn’t take too long for Siegfried to recognize this. Siegfried’s younger brother Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) is a cottage-core cad and the softest possible vision of a ne’er-do-well whose commitment to learning veterinary skills begins as half-hearted but grows in time. Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley) is the housekeeper, cook, and team mom par excellence at Skeldale House. When there’s not mildly simmering romantic tension between her and Seigfried, we learn about her past involving Mr. Hall and her estranged son. There’s also Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton), the daughter of a local farmer who’s strong, no-nonsense, and immediately obvious as James’ romantic interest. Helen usually represents the concerns of the village folk and helps James to understand better how he can help around Darrowby. It all comes together into a lovely setting full of sweet characters and low-impact drama.
It helps that the series was shot in and around the Yorkshire Dales. The vistas are stunning, full of rolling green hills, herds of wooly sheep, and farmers wearing chore shirts and snoods. The late 1930s time period lends a warmly rustic aesthetic that’s perfect for the kind of cozy fantasy All Creatures aims to be. Similar to how cozy mysteries inevitably include murder, the show is not entirely free from tension or tragedy. This being about rural veterinarians in the 1930s, you can expect the occasional animal death. The series approaches it with gentle somberness and respect. All Creatures uses the same gentle tone when World War II begins and James and Tristan face the possibility of serving on the frontlines as military veterinarians or pilots. The show takes these things seriously and gives them emotional weight without unbalancing its winning formula.
Like much of cozy media, the comfort is derived in part from a generally consistent format that repeats itself over episode after episode. The predictability of a consistently happy ending is a part of the charm. Even when our dashing doctors don’t save the day, they take their mistakes seriously and learn from them. While James, Helen, Tristan, Mrs. Hall, and Seigfried are all very different characters, they overlap as people with ultimately noble natures. They have Sunday dinners with some of the heaviest food I’ve ever seen on screen. It feels like Norman Rockwell in the English countryside. The world of Darrowby largely reflects their sweet-hearted nature; conflicts usually resolve, the doctors usually save the day, and a good time is usually had by all. All Creatures wouldn’t be comfy if it went too heavy, but conflicts ever overcome the inherent cuteness.
How cute are we talking? Let me tell you about the perfect baby angel known to us undeserving mortals as Tricki Woo.
Tricki Woo is the fabulously thicc Pekingese owned by the local elder lady of leisure Mrs. Pumphrey (Diana Rigg and then later Patricia Hodge). Tricki Woo is the most magnificent creature to draw breath and lives the life of indulgence and luxury. Tricki Woo rarely moves on their own because they’re pretty much always being carried around, either in their owner’s arms…
… or on a silk tasseled cushion befitting their natural majesty.
But there’s more than just a magically adorable Pekingnese! There are cute cows, sweet sheep, and little lambs. Episodes are typically structured around an animal’s ailment or injury with side plots that distract and bedevil our cast as they try to make things right. There are challenges, arguments, and misunderstandings galore, but it never gets so dark that it can’t be made well by the end of the episode. Darrowby also has more than its rationed allotment of cuties with James and Tristian being the most obvious sources of handsomeness, but there’s also Rachel Shenton who is a dead ringer for noted bombshell Hayley Atwell, especially in the period stylings. Seriously, have we seen Shenton and Atwell in the same room at the same time?
All Creatures Great and Small is a lovely little wonder of a show. It won’t set your world on fire and it’s not the balm for all the world’s woes, but it’s a deep breath of sweet, fresh air. It’s a warm bath while it’s sleeting outside. It’s the perfect warm-mug-of-tea series to unwind with. Once it’s back with us on PBS, I hope you’ll savor every moment of it.