All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special 2024: Callum Woodhouse and Rachel Shenton pay tribute to Anna Madeley as Mrs Hall’s world is rocked
All Creatures Great and Small actors Rachel Shenton, Callum Woodhouse and Nicholas Ralph have shared their admiration for the acting performance of their co-star Anna Madeley in the upcoming Christmas Special of the popular Channel 5 drama series.
The much-anticipated episode will air in Christmas week, on Monday, December 23, at 9pm on Channel 5 and My5, and will be the finale of series five. Viewers will see Mrs Hall, housekeeper of Skeldale House, preparing for the festivities, despite hardship and food shortages, when her world is rocked by a worrying news bulletin.
“It’s every mother’s worst nightmare,” says Anna Madeley, who plays Mrs Hall. “She receives the news that Edward’s ship has been struck, and this happens right before Christmas, when Jimmy’s birthday is also coming up – a time when you desperately want good news and for everyone to be together.”
In an interview with the Yorkshire Post and a small number of other press to preview the Christmas Special, Callum Woodhouse, who plays Tristan Farnon, paid tribute to Anna Madeley’s poignant portrayal of Mrs Hall’s anguish.
“Her performance in this episode is just nothing short of masterful, I think,” he says. “It's a weird thing as well, it sort of makes you a better actor, being in a team with someone who's delivering that strong a performance.
“When someone's that in the world and in the moment, it puts you in the moment. You forget that you're acting because you feel like you're just opposite something that's actually really happening.
“So as well as being an absolute star of the episode, I really do think her performance in this one makes us all look better.”
Rachel Shenton, who plays Helen Herriot, has also praised her co-star: “It had such poignancy and weight to it,” she says. “Anna did it beautifully. You couldn’t help but be on that journey with Mrs Hall.
“All the characters were going through that with Mrs Hall. It was at the forefront of everyone’s mind, because it was so big. We knew that the stakes were really high. We knew that things, you know, really, potentially might never be the same again.
“And this Christmas, at one point, was looking like there may not be one at all. I think we even talked about needing to cancel Christmas this year, because we couldn’t possibly even think about celebrating.”
Nicholas Ralph explained the pivotal importance of Mrs Hall, a role that has been developed and expanded from the original James Herriot books, penned by real-life Thirsk vet Alf Wight, who arrived in the Dales in 1940 and married Joan Danbury in 1941.
“Mrs Hall is like the mother of this surrogate family,” he says. “She’s the middle point, and we all revolve around her. She helps everyone, fixes people’s problems, and looks after everybody. So, when she’s going through something very painful and emotional, you can’t help but empathise and want to do anything you can to take away some of that pain or burden.”
The All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special airs on Monday, December 23, at 9pm on Channel 5 and My5.