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I recently finished watching the latest season of my, and my family’s, favorite show of all time, the British television series All Creatures Great and Small. It was a bit strange watching this show centered on family and community alone in my dorm room when I’m used to watching it squished between several siblings on a couch. As always, however, it still succeeded in making me laugh and bringing me comfort. Watching it alone this semester made me reflect on why I love it so much and why, also, I think we need more shows like it in our lives.
The All Creatures Great and Small television series is based on the collections of short stories by Alfred Wright, who wrote under the pen name James Herriot. Wright was a veterinary surgeon who lived and worked in the Yorkshire Dales in England in the years leading up to, during, and after the Second World War. His semi-autobiographical stories center on the animals and the people of the farming Dales in this transformative period of British history. I read the books shortly after I began watching the series, and they are full of charming and insightful stories of people who were holding on to a fading but essential way of life in a struggling country. The series, like most film adaptations, takes a lot of creative liberties with the original stories. However, it does a remarkable job of maintaining the spirit of the books, something rarely accomplished by most TV series or movies.
In fact, I recently encountered an article claiming that All Creatures Great and Small has
“returned the heart to television.” This show does seem to be full of something that much of the
entertainment I’ve encountered throughout my lifetime lacks. I love this series in part because it
is beautiful cinematically. The costumes, sets, and scenery will transport you to the 1940s British
countryside, where I’ve decided I could very happily settle down and never leave again.
However, I think the real reason my family and I continue to return to this series is because it
explores questions that matter deeply to us. For example, at several points in the series one of the
young main characters, James Herriot, has to decide what kind of work he will do. He originally
came to Yorkshire to work as a vet because he had no other option, but as he builds relationships
there, he has the choice to return to his home city to work in a much more profitable and modern
clinic. He is torn between returning home to easier work and his aging parents, or staying where
he feels his work is meaningful to the community he has built. He faces a similar decision later
on in the series when he chooses between enlisting to fight in World War II or staying home with
his young family in his reserved occupation as a vet. In moments like these, the series explores
questions that I think are often neglected in most entertainment today, such as what does it mean
to do meaningful work? How can you be a steward not only of your family, but of your larger
community? And how does one choose between different kinds of good?
I love the human questions the series explores, and I also appreciate that it approaches
them in a very balanced way. As in the books, the challenges in the characters’ lives are balanced
by wholesome humor and joy, preventing the show from ever feeling like a soap opera. At the
same time, by exploring these real questions, the show never reduces the story to shallow
sentimentality or an idyllic portrait of life in the English countryside. I find this balance deeply
refreshing, since many shows that take place in a historic period overemphasize drama while
ignoring historical facts.
The premiering of the most recent season of All Creatures Great and Small overlapped
with my rereading of C.S. Lewis’ essay “Men Without Chests.” In this essay, Lewis explores
many issues present in his, and our, society. A key idea that stuck with me from this essay was
Lewis’ claim that we are no longer developing many of the sensibilities that make us inherently
human. We are no longer surrounded by stories that convey the values of honor, courage,
stewardship, integrity, selfless love, or the many other qualities that contribute to a meaningful
life. In our world, amongst many other things, the media we consume no longer has heart. Our
emotions aren’t being trained to recognize and love what is good and important in the world. Our
chests, where these sensibilities reside in Lewis’ analogy, are hollow. All Creatures Great and
Small is worth watching, and reading, because it is an exception to this tragic rule. It is full of
heart, and I think that is why my family and I love it so much. We desperately need more of the
values Lewis argued we have lost, and this series full of heart is bringing those values back to
television.
Eileen is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the class of 2029. She is studying French and Political Science.