A new trailer is here for the fifth season of All Creatures Great and Small, as well as a first look at the season’s first episode. Check it out below!
PBS Masterpiece announced that viewers in the U.S. will get to see the next season begin with its first episode airing Sunday, January 12, 2025, at 8 p.m. Central. Returning for the fifth season is Nicholas Ralph as vet James Herriot and Samuel West as his mercurial mentor Siegfried Farnon. Anna Madeley returns as the matriarch of Skeldale House Mrs. Hall, along with Rachel Shenton as the charismatic Helen Herriot. James Anthony-Rose is back in his second season as Richard Carmody. Also returning is Patricia Hodge as the wonderfully sophisticated Mrs Pumphrey, and her adored pampered Pekingese Tricki. But what everyone has been waiting for is no secret: Callum Woodhouse also returns to his role as Tristan Farnon, back from the war as seen in the season preview. Siegfried’s mischievous brother has been serving in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and we’re all glad to see him back.
The latest adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small does something that must be quite difficult to maintain. Like a steady bow across a violinist’s finely tuned string, the series masterfully maintains a perfect balance and tone–for its characters and its story. It juxtaposes an idyllic setting with personal issues of life and death, all as a world war is happening not all that far away. The series that made it into the borg Top 10 television series of the past decade continues a new spin on the stories of James Herriot, as viewers return to Darrowby to join its unconventional and much-loved Skeldale House family and the colorful ensemble of farmers, animals and townsfolk living in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1940s. Filming will take place on location in Yorkshire for both seasons 5 and 6–that’s right, season 6 is coming, too.
Here is a new preview of the coming season of All Creatures Great and Small:
And here is your first look at the first episode of Season 5, from its UK preview. The date in this preview is for the UK release, not the U.S. release!
Herriot’s books are autobiographical, and the TV series is likely more pastoral and tranquil than the gritty realities of the 1930s and 1940s. But the balance of the calm and the heart-pounding is a big part of why this series works for today’s audience. Then again, our blood pressures could all probably do just fine to watch the staff at the Darrowby office sit quietly for an evening in front of the fire with no animal maladies or missing family members.
Catch up with the Edgar Award-winning book series inspired by Samuel West’s character Siegfried Farnon here.
Also returning for series five are writers Debbie O’Malley (Payback, The Guilty) who will write episodes 1 and 6, and Maxine Alderton (All Creatures Great and Small, Doctor Who) who will write episodes 2 and 4. They are joined by writers Matt Evans (Phoenix Rise, A Town Called Malice) who will write episode 3 and Robin French (Cuckoo, The Great) will write episode 5. Brian Percival (All Creatures Great and Small, Dark Angel) returns as Lead Director and Executive Producer of Episodes 1 and 2, Stewart Svaasand (Tin Star, Outlander) returns to direct episodes 3 & 4, and Andy Hay (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom) will direct Episodes 5, 6 and the Christmas Special. Yvonne Francas (The Syndicate, Our Girl) also returns as Producer.
All Creatures Great and Small has been renewed for not one, but two more seasons–5 and 6. Subscribe (at right column or below depending on your viewing device) and keep coming back to borg for more coverage of the series in the coming years.
Catch the entire fifth season (that’s fifth “series” in the UK) of All Creatures Great and Small, UK Channel 5’s highest rated drama ever–again: coming to PBS Passport, or enjoy it weekly with new episodes arriving on PBS Masterpiece every Sunday beginning January 12, 2025 at 8 p.m. Central.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
