Every season, GBH Drama prepares to bring you coverage of the latest and greatest in British dramas. This month, we get the triumphant return of MASTERPIECE’s remake of the classic series All Creatures Great and Small. Featuring eccentric characters, adorable animals, and the vast, rolling hills of Yorkshire, this series does not disappoint. GBH Drama contributor Amanda-Rae Prescott is here to recap the magic as it happens.
All Creatures Great & Small kicks off the second season with a four-month time jump from Christmas, where we ended season 1, to after Easter. Spring in the Yorkshire Dales means lots of sheep giving birth to lambs. The stakes are life and death for the animals James, Tristan and Siegfried attend to, but there’s still room to set up the overarching conflicts and plots for the season ahead.
James At The Crossroads (Again)
The episode opens with James returning to Glasgow to visit his parents. He spends two weeks filling in with the local vet which exposes him to the high life: fancy x-ray machines, taking care of cats instead of 2-ton bulls, and no 3 AM emergency calls. Ultimately, the vet offers him a permanent position. On the one hand, being closer to home will allow James to help his aging parents, but on the other, he’d have to leave Darrowby and any attempts to drag Siegfried into the future behind. This push and pull between home and found family is a theme that will continue in future episodes.
Mary Has A Little (Sick) Lamb
Spring in the Dales means tons of new lambs are entering the world. There will be a lot of fluffy (and slightly slimy when newborn) guest stars to come!
Rob Benson is a sheep farmer who has quite a few pregnant ewes, so making sure all of those baby lambs arrive safely is his top priority. Like Herbert: a runt lamb who was abandoned by his mother, and is looking for another to take care of him. Scruff, Jenny Alderson’s cocker spaniel, loves to cross fences looking for friends, but he ends up scaring the ewes. Poor Scruff gets blamed for one ewe’s miscarriage and other sheep fainting in the fields. Benson believes Scruff needs to get the canine death penalty according to the old traditions.
Yes, they really are suggesting this cutie crosses the rainbow bridge early! SMDH.
James believes killing an otherwise healthy dog is wrong and tries to persuade Benson that obedience school is the answer, but getting Scruff to stop freaking out the sheep won’t be as easy as James thinks.
The Miseducation Of Tristan Farnon
Meanwhile, back in Skeldale House, Tristan still believes he passed all of his vet school classes. Mrs. Hall even used some of Siegfried’s petty cash to buy Tristan a personalized doctor’s bag in advance of Tristan’s birthday. Mrs. Hall plays a trick on Siegfried to call him out on this lie; once again, Mrs. Hall and Siegfried unintentionally act like an old married couple. It’s a good thing the law banning amateur vets from practicing wasn’t passed until 1948, but who knows how much damage the hard work-averse Tristan can do before the end of this episode?
Tristan’s task in the episode is to check in on Peter, Mrs. Tompkin’s budgie, who may need his beak clipped. Mrs. Tompkin is blind, and the little bird is her only companion. In true Tristan fashion, he’s too rough handling the bird and Peter ends up dying. Lying to patients is likely a violation of professional standards, but that’s the lesson he learns after he buys a new budgie to pass off as “Peter.” Tristan, with some help from Siegfried, finesses the lie to a very surprised but grateful Mrs. Tompkin.
The Romance Elephant In The Room
The Scruff Saga of course forces James to go report back to the Aldersons about Scruff’s canine misdeeds. Mr. Alderson agrees with Benson that Scruff has to be put down, Jenny stages her own protest by running away, which none of us can blame her for, and Helen isn’t too happy with James’ suggestion to retrain Scruff either. She’s often acted as the person that introduces James to the way things are done in Yorkshire and this is no exception.
Later, James offers to bring Jenny back to the Aldersons. She, of course, takes the car ride as the opportunity to spill some of the tea she overheard between Helen and Hugh before he left. Hugh accused Helen of liking someone else, which is clearly some shade towards James.
Helen’s initial discussions with James have her acting a bit like Frozen's Elsa: icy, and isolationist. She is still punishing herself for deciding she didn’t truly love Hugh by avoiding everyone else. Jenny, of course, fans the flames by telling Helen she thinks James is handsome. (We stan a ‘shipper!!).
James pushes ahead with his plan to re-train Scruff.
At first Scruff has a little meltdown, but after a break, Jenny can walk him unleashed around the sheep without any barking. He lives to see many more days!!
The Scruff debacle is also a fine opportunity for James to try to take the frost off the Helen situation. Helen admits it’s nice to see James again, but she still feels like she shouldn’t move on and see other people. James tells her she’s punishing herself too much. She agrees that she should at least socialize with friends. He wisely avoids pressuring her by revealing either anything Jenny told him, or his own feelings, which we all know are bubbling beneath the surface.
The episode ends with James reflecting on Darrowby’s natural beauty and the slower pace of life. He hasn’t made a decision regarding the offer back in Glasgow, but he’s clearly interested in settling down in Darrowby.
Season 2 of All Creatures Great And Small is off to a strong start, and episode 1 neatly sets the stage for all of the character development that is to come this season. Will James take the fancy vet gig in Glasgow? Will Tristan finally find out he’s not a real vet? Will Helen finally admit she can move on from the broken engagement? Tune in next week to find out!
