Rent All Creatures Great and Small: Series 1 (2020)

Well updated - All Creatures Great and Small: Series 1 review by SB

This series (I have only seen Series 1) updates the classic BBC serial in a number of ways, for example by giving the housekeeper Mrs Hall a much more central role, and a past. Generally speaking the tone is warmer but still retains the rural tragedies and funny happenings that accompany farming. Samuel West is suited by a beard and makes a credible head of the practice, but is less dominating than Robert Hardy's Siegfried. The actors who play James and Tristan are perhaps too much like each other. As the ravishing Helen, Rachel Shenton manages to look wonderful even when tramping through the muddy fields, but also gives promise for a wider role in later episodes.

Viewers should be aware that although Disc 1 has episodes 1-4, Disc 2 has only episodes 5&6 plus some extras. The Christmas special which actually rounded off the series is missing, in a penny-pinching move by the distributors. and is instead at the start of Series 2.