By LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer
January 8, 2021
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LOS ANGELES – “All Creatures Great and Small,” a beloved TV series of yore, is back as a reboot because producer Colin Callender saw the seriocomic adventures of veterinarians in a close-knit rural community as a tonic for a politically divisive era.
Then the pandemic arrived, and a series knitted together with vivid characters, engaging stories and the beautifully filmed British countryside – and, of course, lots of animals, farm and otherwise – provided more reason to revive the world depicted by author James Herriot.
Herriot was the pen name for James Alfred `Alf’ Wight, who began working as a novice vet in northern England’s Yorkshire area in 1940, kept at it for five decades, and drew on his experiences for his 1970s and ’80s semi-autobiographical works.