All Creatures Great and Small

This television movie was very much the precursor to the very successful BBC television series.

Simon Ward plays young James Herriot as he begins a job in the Yorkshire countryside in the veterinary practice of the irascible Siegfried Farnon (Anthony Hopkins.)

Siegfried tends to give him conflicting advice as James tackles household pets and farm animals. Some of them are not happy with the young and inexperienced upstart.

James also finds romance with Helen as he tries to woo her, unsuccessfully at first.

It is an episodic film and condensed. Some of the characters are underused. Tristan Farnon is very much relegated to the background.

Simon Ward does well as the nice enough vet but Hopkins steals the film.

It is an appealing movie but nowhere near as good as the television series which was outstanding.

This film version of James Herriot`s series of novels isn`t much cop compared to the television show of the same . This movie is the prior piece but there`s nothing very memorable about . The plot is more or less composed of " Will young James get married to his girlfriend or not ? " , hardly the most original or compelling premise for a movie , and we`re treated to little in the way of these blackly comical scenes of animals and their owners having mishaps that made the TV show enjoyable . Perhaps the worst problem is that Tristan ( Played by boyish mischief in the show by Peter Davison ) is more or less a peripheral character in this movie

The cast are passable ( Simon West was rather famous when this was produced while Anthony Hopkins was almost totally unknown ) but they seem to lack the flair that Christopher Timothy , Robert Hardy and Peter Davison brought to the long running series

The movie is nice, not world class, but shows you a splendid young Anthony Hopkins as Sigfried Farnon.

This movie never reaches the level of the series (which were started after, because of(?) this movie) It was a bit too hasty, no real depth in the characters, most things you have to deduct from conversation. The real Herriot lovers are waiting for the explosions of Sigfried, especially if you ever saw Anthony Hopkins in action, but he is surprisingly sedate almost throughout this movie.

I would recommend the books, and the series, but this is an enjoyable movie non the less.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, at great surprise. I would not recommend it to fans of the action genre but everyone else should take a look, especially animal lovers, don't think for a second you need to have read Herriot's book. The actors themselves provide all the entertainment with their dialogue (except the bits with the animals and farmers). It is actually an emotional film and makes you involved with the characters. A word of warning, since it covers a significant amount of time without making it that clear don't leave the room. I haven't made this film sound as good as it is but believe me it's great. Simon Ward and Brian Stirner are very good as James Herriot and Tristan respectively but Anthony Hopkins steals every scene he's in (as always) as Siegfried, who constantly confuses Herriot by changing what he said the night before and manages to insult all the women. The scene where he is chatting up his girlfriend is a classic example of how NVC can be better than actually saying something. So long as you know what you are expecting this film is excellent.

A great British classic, watch it.

This really seems to capture the spirit of pre war Yorkshire. It really feels as if they were back in the thirties with little of the outside world impinging on them.By the way this was shown in cinemas in the UK.Definitely not a tv movie.