'All Creatures Great & Small' Introduces James' New "Right Hand Man"
Episode 3 of All Creatures Great & Small opens with veterinarian James Herriot and his wife Helen napping on a grassy slope at her family farm, Heston Grange. It’s a warm, sunny spring day, but spring in the Yorkshire Dales means lambing season, which in turn means night calls and broken sleep for veterinarians and farmers. Farmer Richard Alderson (Tony Pitts), Helen’s father, is unimpressed by the younger generation’s lack of stamina. There’s work to be done! Helen remarks to James that they should view it as practice for anticipated broken nights as young parents, but that seems a long way off, if not an impossibility, with so much work and so little time together.
Seigfried: Richard Carmody? From London? He won’t last.
James, however, has a cunning plan when his future right-hand man arrives. He’s a student with an excellent academic record, and James sees himself as a mentor. Mr. Alderson is skeptical. Star veterinary student Richard Carmody (James Anthony-Rose), fresh from London, arrives in Darrowby and discovers the signposts around town have been removed to confuse the enemy in the event of an invasion. After wandering in circles, he arrives at Skeldale House, where James rushes him into the examination room. Siegfried has taken it as a personal affront Mrs. Hall is making up Tristan’s bed for the newcomer, and Mrs. Hall has been instructed to find lodgings nearby.
