BBC Could Have Done Better
My husband and I were disappointed with the fifth season of the " All Creatures Great and Small Series". The first three seasons and specials were well written, directed and acted. However in the latter portion of the fourth season and the entire fifth season is appears the BBC cut corners on this production. The writing, acting and directing are mediocre at best. Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy and Peter Davison give outstanding performances as James, Sigfried and Tristian. However we did not care for Linda Bellingham as Helen Herriot. Her performance is cold, she is like a robot going through the motions of saying her lines. Carol Drinkwater gave life, humor and class to Helen. Her performance actually made you believe she is Helen and always will be. Overall this dvd is must for your " All Creatures Great and Small " dvd collection if you are a die hard James Herriot fan.
Still entertaining
This fifth series marked the half way point in All Creatures adventures, after being resurected after WW2. This classic BBC production is no longer based on the books of James Herriot, new writers based stories on the wonderful character performances of Robert Hardy (Senior partner Seigfried) Peter Davison (Brother Tristan) Christopher Timothy. (James Herriot) In addition to which, there is now colourful Scottish vet Callum Buccannon, intoduced during series 4, to assist the partners in practice, and his love affair with Diedre, former girlfriend of Tristan, is chartered in the episodes.
One continuing handicap of the later series was Carol Drinkwater no longer played Helen Herriot, the role was thereafter the war assumed by Lynda Bellingham, who tended to play every part she got exactly the same. Thus she was never really Helen, simply Lynda Bellingham joining the family. Continuity errors dogged the programme, with things like the all too fast aging of the Herriots...
Series 5 of All Creatures
I enjoyed the final series for this program. The only complaint I had was that the writing was tired. They redid some situations that were done in previous episodes - just changed the Actors. I also missed some of the Actors that had moved on including the original Helen - James's wife, and Mrs. Hall the house keeper.
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