'All Creatures Great & Small' Season 3 Finally Declares War in "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

This week’s All Creatures Great & Small carries the punch and emotional weight of the season finale it was in the U.K. (Here in the U.S.A., the season finale is the Christmas Special, airing next week). It’s a moving and brilliant episode as our beloved characters move toward war. The episode opens with the date front and center, Friday, September 1, 1939, less than 48 hours before war is declared, and Tristan is preparing to visit Florence Pandhi’s family home. As he does,  he, Siegfried, and Mrs. Hall hear the government’s radio announcement that Germany has invaded Poland.

Mrs. Pumphrey: If there is a war, I want this place to be a sanctuary. Not just for my staff, but for anyone who might need it. When you find someone you really care about, you must cling onto them like a life ring in a storm, because you never know what might happen next.

Determined to keep a positive attitude and pleased Tristan’s courtship is progressing, Mrs. Hall suggests the Skeldale Hall inhabitants should reciprocate by inviting the Pandhi family to Sunday lunch. James and Helen are testing her father’s herd for TB and enjoying working together until they discover a possible positive result moves the situation quickly to awkward. Richard Alderson has been championing the testing initiative from the beginning, and he feels betrayed by James and the Ministry of Agriculture. He offers to shoot the cow, so no one will have to know. But James stands firm. He can only hold off reporting the result for a day or two.