Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Series 5 of the new ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series is coming to an end on Channel 5 this Thursday. Before I share my thoughts on the season, I’d like to share some thoughts on two TV items on the original ‘All Creatures’ TV series that I have seen recently.

The first TV item is ‘Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison Remember…All Creatures Great and Small’. This is an 18-minute conversation between Chris Timothy – James Herriot in the original ‘All Creatures’, and Peter Davison – Tristan Farnon in the TV show. 🙂

I’d only seen Peter recently at the ‘Exeter Comic Con and Gaming Festival’ this October and I’d seen episodes of ‘Great British Car Journeys’ featuring Peter and Chris beforehand. It was lovely to see these two reminiscing about their time in the TV series. 🙂

It’s clear from watching Peter and Chris interact with each other how very good they are as friends and that ‘All Creatures’ is a series that provided them many happy memories. I enjoyed many of their anecdotes about the TV series and how they became involved in it.

Some of the behind-the-scenes information they shared on making ‘All Creatures’ are things I knew about already and some not so well. Peter Davison shared how he and his vet co-stars had to really put their arms up cows, unlike nowadays in the new TV show. 🙂

The story of Chris Timothy being admitted to hospital during the making of the TV series when a car hit was mentioned in the conversation, which I didn’t realise was a thing in the series. Chris Timothy recalling him drinking actual beer in the series was funny to hear. 🙂

The second TV item I saw was something that came up by chance after I finished watching Chris and Peter’s latest 2024 conversation. ‘The Cult of…’ episode of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ was first shown in 2008 and has behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews.

This included not just Chris Timothy and Peter Davison, but also Robert Hardy, Carol Drinkwater, Lynda Bellingham, John McGlynn, producer Bill Sellars, writer Johnny Bryne and director Roderick Graham. It was so fantastic to see these people being interviewed.

One of the disadvantages of checking out the original ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series on DVD is that there aren’t any behind-the-scenes extras to enjoy. So, it was refreshing to watch ‘The Cult of…’ episode and gain more behind-the-scenes information.

For example, I had no idea that Robert Hardy and John McGlynn didn’t really get on well with each other when making the TV series from Series 4 to 6 in the late 1980s. It’d explain why Callum came across as an often frustrating and inconsistent character in the series.

The Christopher Timothy/Carol Drinkwater love affair that went on behind-the-scenes was something I was sort-of aware of but didn’t read much into it, as I assumed it was wrapped up in rumours. I’m glad ‘The Cult of…’ provided more clarity regarding this affair.

The two TV items focusing on the original 1977-1990 ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series were delightful treats for me and my parents to check out on BBC iPlayer. It was nice to learn more about the original ‘All Creatures’ series that I grew up and loved seeing.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂