All Creatures Great and Small: Carol Drinkwater to return to James Herriot’s home of Thirsk

“My All Creatures Great and Small memories of our filming days in dear Yorkshire are all rather bucolic and full of laughter,” she says.

“The team, first and foremost, we were such good friends. The upbeat spirits and jokes, even on very cold, tough, late-night shoots, never waking up and thinking, ‘oh, I have to go to work’, but rather ‘Yay, another day on location with this fabulous bunch’.”

Next Thursday, July 10, Carol – author, actress and TV presenter – will host a special evening at White Rose Books & Cafe in Thirsk, the real home of author and vet Alf Wight, who wrote the James Herriot novels that inspired not one but two highly successful TV adaptations, both called All Creatures Great and Small. The BBC production ran 1978-1990, and the Channel 5 series began in 2020, with series six set to air this autumn.

Carol played Helen Herriot in the first three series of the BBC series, which also starred Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Peter Davison and Mary Hignett.

She says: “I remember when Chris had a rather serious accident, Peter, Tim (Robert Hardy’s first name was actually Timothy) and I were launched into new scenes to shoot without Chris, who was in hospital for some time.

“Suddenly at three in the morning in the February snow, I was delivering a lamb on a very windy hillside. It was freezing. We took close-up shots several times because I was so overwhelmed at the sight of the new-born lamb that I couldn’t close my mouth. Dumb-struck.

“The director quite rightly reminded me that Helen Herriot would have seen and done such deliveries many times.

“Also, the crew were feeding us brandy to keep us warm. I am not a spirits drinker and feared I would end up plastered. Fortunately, the little lamb plopped out before I was too far gone to remember my lines."

Now living in France, Carol does not keep up with the latest TV adaptation. “I haven’t really watched the new Channel 5 series,” she says. “My agent suggested to the producers that I might play Mrs Pumphrey, which I would have loved. Such fun. They did not go for the proposal. I snuck a peek when Di Rigg was Mrs P and thought she was marvellous, bless her.”

However, there are other TV plans in the pipeline. “I am working with two TV executives who are hoping to produce my Olive Farm series of memoirs as a drama series rather along the lines of The Durrells,” she says. “These books would make great television so I am excited. However, book to TV is always a challenging journey. Fingers crossed.”

Carol will be in Thirsk to talk also about her latest novel, One Summer in Provence, which she hopes is, “a celebration of so many of the joys and pleasures of living on the Côte d’Azur, on a vineyard close to the Riviera”.

Carol has already shared her love of Provence in the South of France - where she has lived for the last 35 years with her husband, Michel - in her highly popular Channel 5 series Carol Drinkwater’s Secret Provence, which is still available to watch on My5, and follows Carol seeking out her favourite hidden haunts as well as working and entertaining around her home, garden and vineyards and seeking expert advice and insight from the locals. She also shares her thoughts, experiences and love of bees on her website caroldrinkwater.com.

“Books are such long journeys,” she says. “I wanted to write about a woman in her middle life, not a young woman. I also wanted to write about the silences in a marriage, the unspoken stories that build up in a relationship. Secrets not divulged.

“In this case, my heroine, Celia, out of the blue receives a forwarded letter from a man who claims to be the son she gave up at birth. David, the son - if he is her son - has been a secret she has carried since she was 20, never having related anything of this past to her husband, Dominic.

“How does a couple adapt to such a huge adjustment? A marriage that is put on the spot, as it were?

“After I finished filming Secret Provence, I wanted to bring that vibrancy, all those Provençal colours and textures into the novel. I hope that the pages are full of tastes and scents as well as - fingers crossed - a story with mystery and complex relationships.”

And fans will be delighted to learn that there are more novels to come from Carol. She says: “I am at work on a new novel also set in the south of France but very different to One Summer in Provence.”

An Evening with Carol Drinkwater will be at White Rose Books & Cafe on Thursday, July 10, 7pm (doors open 6.30pm). Tickets are £12 to include a book, or £6 event only, both will include light refreshments. Book on 01845 524353 or e-mail [email protected] to reserve tickets and a copy of the signed book.