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Veterinarian James Alfred Wight, who wrote under the pen name James Herriot
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The 1970s TV series All Creatures Great and Small begins with James Herriot riding a bus through the verdant Yorkshire countryside. Although he doesn't realize it, someone he will later get to know rides the bus that day. Her name is Helen Alderson.
After disembarking the bus in the town of Darrowby, he asks a local for directions to Skeldale House, where he hopes to secure work as a veterinarian. Who, in fact, gives him these directions? No one other than Helen Alderson.
Apparently his mind is too full of his upcoming interview with Siegfried Farnon to notice her beauty. Unlike Siegfried Farnon's brother Tristan, whom he will soon get to know, James always acts cautiously. As a young man with no income, he wouldn't be looking for potential dates.
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Carol Drinkwater, the first actress who portrayed Helen Alderson in the TV Series All Creatures Great and Small
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In the third episode of the first season, James meets Helen again when he drives to her farm, as Siegfried Farnon's assistant, to put a cast on a calf's broken leg. While he doesn't remember her from his first day in Darrowby, she remembers him. It is from this second meeting that his interest in her blossoms.
While all this happens very early in the first year of the TV series, events proceed quite differently in James Herriot's first novel, All Creatures Great and Small. While he does travel into Darrowby by bus, he does not ask a pretty young woman for directions. Nor does he meet Helen Alderson until halfway through the book. This may cause some American fans to scratch their heads when trying to correlate the novel with the 1970s TV series.
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A scene from the film "It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet" (1976)
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In case you didn't realize it, All Creatures Great and Small is actually a conglomeration of James Herriot's first and second novels. These were published in the United Kingdom as If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet. While I have read neither British version, I understand that some material in those novels was edited out for American readers. As to how much might have been taken out, and whether or not anything was added, I cannot say.
If Only They Could Talk--or the first half of All Creatures Great and Small--covers the entire first year of James Herriot's time in Darrowby. It introduces us to many characters that will become important to us later on, such as Mrs. Pumphrey and her beloved Pekingese Tricki Woo.
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Mrs Pumphrey & Tricki Woo
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That first novel--and his first year as a veterinarian--ends with James contemplating his commitment to his veterinary career, at least when it comes to serving farmers.
Imagine: you've just just returned from a late night call, changed into your pajamas, and fallen asleep for a few minutes. Then the telephone rings, and another farmer says, "I need you out here now." James is so flustered by this that he refuses to change back into his cold, dirty clothes, and drives out to the farm in his pajamas.
Unlike in the TV series, after assisting the farmer, he doesn't show up at the Alderson family farm in his pajamas to inquire as to the progress of the injured calf. Remember, he has not yet met Helen, let alone attended her father's calf.
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Poster for the hilarious 1976 film "It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet"
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All that would take place after James Herriot had spent an entire year serving the good people of Darrowby and those on nearby farms. As to whether Helen Alderson ever saw James Herriot in his pajamas before their marriage, all I can say is that it's not mentioned in the novel All Creatures Great And Small.
That said, I suppose it could have been one of the bits edited out of the American compilation. If you're an insatiable James Herriot fan who needs to know the answer to that question, I can but point you to the original version of his second novel in the United Kingdom as It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet.
Dragon Dave
P.S. All photos from The World of James Herriot in Thirsk, England. To learn more about James Herriot's life, and see where he lived and worked, visit their website, https://worldofjamesherriot.com/
