Season 4 Discussion Thread

[howiveaddict]

On 2/20/2024 at 12:55 PM, DonnaMae said:

I think she was just fostering the cat while it healed until they could find a home for it.  

Yes.  And people's sensibilities were different back then.  Especially after being on a farm with a lot of animals.  Helen giving away the cat really wasn't that big of a deal for the times.

I've watched part of the Touring the Dales special.  It's a great episode!  They show the filming locations and also animal training to name a few things.  

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Loved the Touring The Dales, makes me want to move there!!!

[BuckeyeLou]

The "Touring the Dales" special was so interesting! I always like to see the 'behind the scenes" stuff of shows & the interviews with the actors about scenes they did and what they like.  And training the animals!  I, too, would love to see the Yorkshire Dales.

[Dowel Jones]

It really was interesting.  The amount of work the crew put in to change appearances was impressive.  The front of "Skeldale House" is in Grassington, but the rear is in Arncliffe, and the interiors are on a studio lot.  As are the interiors for the Drovers Arms.  And the bread shop had a ready made shelf of fake, laquered bread to put in the real window of the real shop.  That's funny.  And, of course, no documentary would be complete without mentioning Mother Nature's timetable of sunshine v. rain.

[Driad]

Is "Touring the Dales" on the PBS site?  All I can find are previews.  I have Passport.

[Dowel Jones]

I didn't find it on my Passport listing either.  It was used here locally as a special presentation as part of the pledge drive.  Maybe call your local PBS station and inquire if they are planning to run it.

[JudyObscure]

8 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

And, of course, no documentary would be complete without mentioning Mother Nature's timetable of sunshine v. rain.

I always wonder how they manage to film any British shows.  We moved to England (the Cotswolds) in January 1990.  It was already beautiful and as spring came in it became breathtaking. 

So I set my camera out to take pictures to send back to West Virginia.  Just waiting by the door for a sunny day.  Three months passed. All that drizzle makes for technicolor green grass and fields of flowers, but you really work for it.

Edited February 27 by JudyObscure

[DonnaMae]

Are the interiors done in the studio in London?

[Dowel Jones]

I think they said that the studio was built in an old warehouse in the Dales area, but not in Grassington; some distance away.

[AZChristian]

53 minutes ago, DonnaMae said:

Are the interiors done in the studio in London?

All I can find in my quick check is that "interiors are filmed in a studio."  Nowhere I've seen so far names it.

[iMonrey]

The Touring the Dales special really was amazing. It's so funny to see all the people who make this show happen because it feels like sort of a small, personal production. And then you see hundreds of crew members and all these cranes and other equipment positioned around "Darrowby" Square. It's crazy.

The scenery in that area really is breathtaking. I do envy the people who live and work there.

[MrAtoz]

I hadn't even known that a "Touring the Dales" special existed, so thanks to everyone for alerting me to it. I checked the schedule, and my PBS station is showing it again tomorrow, and also on Sunday, so I've got the DVR set to record it.

So to @Driad and anyone else who might have missed it, check your local listings. It may be on again soon.

[Ancaster]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:51 PM, Moxie Cat said:

 

And if there isn't movement with the Siegfried/Audrey pairing next year, I will SCREAM. I still can't believe we weren't tossed a bone in the Christmas episode! (Sorry, but "Siegfried is right, you are remarkable" just doesn't cut it.)

Am I in the minority hoping this doesn't happen?

[Driad]

7 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

Am I in the minority hoping this doesn't happen?

Maybe, but you're not alone.

[Orcinus orca]

1 hour ago, Ancaster said:

Am I in the minority hoping this doesn't happen?

I am with you all the way.

[DonnaMae]

Doesn't happen?  I want Siegfried and Audrey together as a couple.  

[Doublemint]

20 hours ago, Ancaster said:

Am I in the minority hoping this doesn't happen?

No, I hope it doesn't happen, and I don't think it will.

[iMonrey]

On 2/28/2024 at 11:56 AM, Ancaster said:

On 2/25/2024 at 2:51 PM, Moxie Cat said:

And if there isn't movement with the Siegfried/Audrey pairing next year, I will SCREAM. I still can't believe we weren't tossed a bone in the Christmas episode! (Sorry, but "Siegfried is right, you are remarkable" just doesn't cut it.)

Am I in the minority hoping this doesn't happen?

I don't think it will happen. I get that they have "shippers" but I've seen no evidence of romantic feelings in either direction regardless of what some people must be reading into it. I think if the show were even entertaining that idea we'd have seen some hint of it while she was going out with Gerard. 

[Blergh]

Well, the Behind the Scenes special was fun and informative re how and where they filmed in several communities in the Yorkshire Dales, I have to admit that I wasn't surprised that they didn't show  any locals who weren't totally happy with the disruptions of the shooting schedule or not crazy about the show!

[possibilities]

I can't get over how many people it takes to produce a scene. Look at all those tech people! I don't really understand why it takes so many.

[Unathletic Club]

I read these books back in the 70's and 80's and loved them so much. I'm not sure, but I think the real Herriot (Alf Wight) did, in fact go AWOL to visit Helen.  

I don't want to see Siegfried and Audrey together. I like her with Gerald and hope they will be reunited soon.

There is a coffee table type book called "James Herriot's Yorkshire that is a beautiful look at the Dales. I received it as a gift in 1980  so it may be out of print but it is worth looking for.

Edited March 4 by Unathletic Club
adding

[Blackie]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:28 PM, ML89 said:

Anyone else expecting Sister Monica Joan as the midwife?

 

😆🤣I was coming here to ask if anyone was expecting Sister Evangelina!!!

 

I'm glad that when James did arrive,Helen looked like a tired woman who had recently given birth,not how they usually portray postpartum women on TV.

 

York is a fantastic city to visit and the dales are beautiful. Some of the places they filmed were actually places in the series Gentleman Jack. Lots of good dale scenery in that series too, although I'm not sure where that was filmed.

[Shanna Marie]

For another documentary that might be of interest and relevant to this season and possibly the next one, there's a British series called Wartime Farm in which a group of historians and archaeologists try to live for a year on a farm as though they were in WWII, looking at how the government was trying to increase food production. One thing I found interesting was that they were trying to reduce the number of animals that were kept, since they could produce more non-meat food per acre than they could meat, so early in the war herds were culled. I'm surprised that didn't come up in All Creatures. They'd keep dairy cows, but the sheep, pig, and beef cattle population in Britain dropped drastically during the war. They were also encouraging farmers to use machinery rather than horses because there was a labor shortage and machines were more efficient. It seems there would have been less need for veterinarians. I'm only at the part where they're living like it's 1940, so they may have had to go back to horses later in the war if there was a fuel shortage. I found it on YouTube (possibly an unauthorized copy), but it may be streaming elsewhere. It gives me some of the same feels as All Creatures, with animals (a very cute dog) and the people working together on a project.

[Orcinus orca]

4 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

For another documentary that might be of interest and relevant to this season and possibly the next one, there's a British series called Wartime Farm in which a group of historians and archaeologists try to live for a year on a farm as though they were in WWII, looking at how the government was trying to increase food production.

I love this group, they did the series Tales from the Green Valley (1600's farm), Edwardian Farm and Victorian Farm.  Fascinating stuff!  I will definitely look at the Wartime Farm!

[Shanna Marie]

19 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

I love this group, they did the series Tales from the Green Valley (1600's farm), Edwardian Farm and Victorian Farm. 

I just watched Tales from the Green Valley, and then Wartime Farm came up in my recommendations. I've already watched the Tudor Monastery Farm, and I've read a couple of Ruth Goodman's books. Now I need to look up some stuff on agriculture in Yorkshire because I wonder what they could have grown. My guess is that they have sheep and cattle because it's not a really hospitable place for other crops, so they may have had to pick up the meat slack for the rest of Britain. From the episodes I've seen so far, it seems like All Creatures missed some opportunities for wartime storylines that would have fit the series (I haven't read the books, so I don't know if this would have gone too far from the books to really deal with the war, but that doesn't seem to have stopped them on other storylines). It sounds like the government was all up in the farmers' business with evaluations and production quotas. Then there were Land Girls coming out to work on the farms, usually city girls with no farm experience. One thing that could have been fun was the pig clubs, in which a group would contribute their scraps to feed a piglet, then share in the meat when it was big enough to be slaughtered.

[reneerose]

I finally got round to binge watching the rest of Series 4.  I started on the eps leading up to Carmody's 1st appearance.  I have to say, James Anthony Rose and the writers have done a great job of introducing him to the show with a nice humorous, heartfelt character arc, I ended up being more interested in his storyline than the regulars this season.    It would be nice to see him back in Series 5 along with Tris.  Times like this I wish there were more than 7 episodes per series, I'd like more animal tales with Tris, James, Carmody, and Siegfried....am an older original ACGAS fan that loved the interplay of clients and vets in multiple episodes.  

[reneerose]

On 2/5/2024 at 2:42 PM, Sarah 103 said:

If I were running the show, I would have James leaving for the war as the season finale, and then pick up a few years later when everyone is home or introduce new characters. I would pretty much completely skip the war years, which you can do because the show doesn't have children at the center. The actor playing Jennie can probably be dressed/styled differently to make her appear a few years older if they needed to. 

I did not get to post this last week because the boards were down. My guess is Carmody is in the Dales to do his part for the war effort, but does not plan on making that his full time home or where he will spend his career as a practicing Vet.

When Tristan comes back, he will try to pick up where he left off, and Carmody will go elsewhere. I think Carmody would probably be happiest in a research position, as opposed to directly interacting with patients and their owners/people. Tristan and Carmody will not be competing once the war is over and done. 

Forgive me replying as I finally just finished Series 4. In the books, does Carmody reappear after some years have gone by? I think I read a  book summary that he does meet up with James in the future and looks back on his time at Skeldale fondly.  I really liked his character and how they fleshed him out more it seemed than the book.  Also I think, having learned some people skills at Skeldale who could practice as a vet for awhile and as you say, transition to research or teach at a vet college. I would think in Series 5, they might just do the time jump if they skip the war years like they did in the original series...though in a way it would be interesting to see how the practice does with James away.  Some times I still just want there to be twenty episodes per series versus the 6 we have.  I hope with the 5th and 6th series though the quality doesn't go down.  Part of me wonders if they will end it in the 6th series....

Edited April 11 by reneerose