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Even as I watched the animated introduction to PBS Masterpiece s All Creatures Great and Small, which features a small automobile zipping through rolling green hills dotted with fleecy sheep, I felt my jaw unclench and my shoulders drop just a bit. The series, which is based on the beloved books by Alf Wight (under the nom de plume James Herriot), promises from the outset to be tremendously cozy the television equivalent of a chunky sweater knit from oatmeal-colored yarn.
But All Creatures doesn t just stop at being pleasant in a wholesomely British kind of way. Coursing through the entire seven-episode series is such an amount of heart, the kind that ensures that goodness and decency inevitably win the day, that it will leave you yearning for better times, especially amid the unprecedented stress the last year has brought us.
All Creatures Great and Small season two release date | cast and plot radiotimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from radiotimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
It’s difficult to imagine a better TV balm coming off the
annus horibilis that was 2020 than the latest production from “Masterpiece,” celebrating its 50th anniversary with the debut of a remake of an early PBS drama hit, “All Creatures Great and Small” (9 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 21, WQED-TV).
Like the original 1978-90 British import, this new series is also based on James Herriot’s books about his adventures as a new veterinarian in 1930s Yorkshire.
The first two (of seven) episodes offer a fair amount of set-up as James (Nicholas Ralph) moves from Glasgow to Darrowby for a job as an assistant to pompous veterinarian Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West).
Weekend TV with all the charm we need: All Creatures Great and Small theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
‘All Creatures Great and Small’ on PBS: New version is cozy, comforting and so very welcome (review)
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
Posted Jan 06, 2021
Nicholas Ralph plays James Herriott in a new version of All Creatures Great and Small, coming to Masterpiece on PBS. (Photo: Matt Squire/PBS/Playground Television (UK) Ltd)
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At the dawn of another year, the arrival of a new production of “All Creatures Great and Small” on the PBS “Masterpiece” showcase might feel boringly familiar. One more production made to appeal to viewers who love nothing better than a polite British period piece?
“All Creatures Great and Small” is definitely polite. And cozy. And comfortingly unchallenging. But as 2021 begins, watching this fresh take on what was, decades ago, already a public television favorite, turns out to be just what the doctor of veterinary medicine ordered.