Wearing my coziest pajamas and snuggled under my softest blanket, a freshly brewed cup of tea on the coffee table before me and my toy poodle beside me on the couch, I am ready for my trip to the English countryside.
. . . Or the next best thing, anyway: Masterpiece Classic’s television adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small.
Bucolic scenery, replete with sprawling dales and sweet farm animals, is only part of what constitutes the series’ charm, however. More wonderful still is the picture it paints of community and family life.
A Beloved Classic Remade
Based on actual events and the beloved 1970s–80s series of the same name, All Creatures follows veterinarian James Herriot in 1940s Yorkshire, England. The remake, now filming its seventh season in the UK, stars Nicholas Ralph as Herriot, Rachel Shenton as his wife Helen, and Samuel West as Herriot’s lovable curmudgeon of a veterinary partner, Siegfried Farnon. Also featured is Callum Woodhouse as Siegfried’s younger brother Tristan, whose shenanigans provide great comic relief, while housekeeper Mrs. Hall, played by Anna Madeley, supplies a gentle voice of reason.
The main cast is supported by a quirky ensemble of villagers and farmers—and of course, all manner of creatures. From cattle and horses to birds, tortoises, and dogs, Herriot tends to them all. He also understands that caring for animals involves, most importantly, caring for the people who love them. We never get the sense that his veterinary work is just a job, something he does only to pay the bills. Nor does he idolize work the way so many of us are tempted to do in contemporary culture. For Herriot, rather, his work is a vocation, the way he is called to use his gifts to love people and steward God’s creation.
But that’s only one of the most salient themes All Creatures presents to its viewers. Read on for three more lessons this sweet show teaches us as we live the Resurrection more deeply this spring.
Bear Patiently With Others' Faults
One of the things I appreciate the most about All Creatures is its honesty in portraying human relationships. Perhaps because its characters are drawn from real life, they resist caricature and melodrama in favor of (mostly) ordinary conflicts, not unlike what any of us experience in our families or friendships. Occasionally pet rats run loose and goats break into the sitting room . . . but mostly it’s all quite normal. Brothers squabble and forgive each other. A strong-willed boss digs his heels in on something trivial and later learns to compromise. People make mistakes and apologize sincerely.
“Love” is not just a saccharine, fair-weather feeling in Herriot’s fictional world. It is worked at and willed, often with great difficulty. And it always triumphs.
Be Where Your Feet Are
It’s no secret that we live in a highly restless culture. Our fingers itch for our phones. Social media apps lure us into thinking something better is always happening out there, away from wherever we are right now. We have never been more connected and yet, paradoxically, we have never felt more isolated.
In the midst of such times, All Creatures shows what it looks like to invest in an incarnate community, through good times and bad. To belong to a place and its people. To know neighbors (and their pets) by name. To build the Body of Christ.
Practice Gentle Accompaniment
Perhaps, although we are now several weeks into the Easter season, some people in your life still feel stuck in Good Friday. Maybe you do too. How can we comfort them, or seek comfort ourselves?
In a striking scene from the latest season, Tristan, who has been struggling with his mental health since his return from World War II, sits alone in the village church, praying and weeping for his fallen friends. Siegfried and Mrs. Hall pursue him and—after some gentle encouragement—Tristan unburdens some of his wartime demons to his brother. Importantly, Siegfried does not force Tristan to share or rush to offer him advice or platitudes. He is simply present to his brother in his suffering, receiving his sorrow and modeling Christlike compassion and accompaniment.
Yes, All Creatures offers a welcome, wholesome escape from the stress of modern life. But it does more than that. While filling my mind with images of the idyllic English countryside, it fills my heart with a yearning for heavenly things. And, like any beautiful work of art, it leaves me transformed. I return to the world I inhabit with fresh eyes, inspired to live differently here and now: with more kindness, more compassion, more connection, and more love.
Dr. Sarah Zentner is a bibliophile and “hygge” enthusiast who delights in steaming mugs of tea, freshly baked pastries, the Little Way, and all things true, good, and beautiful. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the Catholic University of America and lives with her toy poodle, JoJo, in Washington, D.C., where she teaches literature at an all-girls Catholic secondary school.
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