'All Creatures Great & Small' Dives into the Psyche of "Surviving Siegfried"
Despite his outward confidence and success in All Creatures Great & Small, senior veterinarian Siegfried Farnon is a haunted man. Like many of his generation who survived The Great War (World War I), he suffers from PTSD, or “shell shock,” as it was then called. It is not something he can discuss or seek help for, but he must instead endure. Despite the playfulness of this week’s title, “Surviving Siegfried,” this episode might as well be called “Siegfried, Surviving.”
Major Saunders: When you’ve seen what we have, I’m not sure that [humanity] exists anymore. Now it looks like we’re going to make the same mistakes all over again.
As the episode begins, in his mind or dreams, he is again in the Army Veterinary Company, riding through the horrific landscape of Ypres, a bleak and shocking contrast to the beautiful Yorkshire scenery we enjoy so much in this series. The young Siegfried (Andy Sellers) and two fellow soldiers try to rescue a wounded horse while fighting to put on their masks during a gas attack.
