All Creatures Great and Small Series 5: Channel 5 releases new episode one teaser clip featuring Anna Madeley and Patricia Hodge as Nicholas Ralph shares behind-the-scenes insight

Episode one of series five picks up in spring 1941, with the war fully underway, and Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley) and Mrs Pumphrey Patricia Hodge) considering and reflecting upon their contribution within the community.

To preview the first episode, which airs tomorrow night, September 19, at 9pm, Channel 5 has released a new clip in which Mrs Pumphrey explains to Mrs Hall that her house is becoming a convalescent home for soldiers.

So far, the Grade 1-listed stately home Broughton Hall, near Skipton, has been used for filming scenes at the manor, providing the perfect setting as the not-so-humble abode of Mrs P and Tricki Woo (who will now have to move into rather less grand accommodation).

Episode one is entitled To All Our Boys, and it sees James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) at RAF Abingdon, as he and his RAF crew prepare for an important training flight. But as they are about to take off, James is unexpectedly grounded, and examined by the Medical Officer, who delivers some surprising and disappointing news. James is reluctant to let his team down, but is sent to do farm labour. His vet skills come to the fore when he steps in to help with a difficult calving.

Speaking ahead of the series launch, Nicholas Ralph described the challenges and rewards of filming the calving scene, explaining that a stand-in real vet, dressed in the same clothes, is the one who physically interacts with the cow.

“It’s funny seeing the magic of how they do that, how they cut it all together,” said Nicholas. “So I’m running out between takes to see Brian (Percival), our director, who’s got a monitor and we’re rewinding through the footage of the live birth. And he’s like, ‘right, so there, they picked up the hay’.

“It was quite intricate this time as well because it was all to do with little bits of string that were tied around its feet. So it was quite an intricate thing in getting that all right, because on the screen, it’s back to front. But it was quite fun. I love these kind of challenges.”

Viewers can also expect to see a change of scene, and costume, for Anna Madeley, when former Wren Mrs Hall becomes an air warden, although Siegfried (Samuel West) is at first alarmed (and more than a little impressed) when he first sees her in her uniform.

Samuel says: “Siegfried has known women in uniform before, and he’s known Mrs Hall, and he’s known Mrs Hall’s history in uniform, but I think he’s never put the two together, and it’s a powerful combination.”

Joking together about Siegfried’s initial disgruntlement at Mrs Hall’s new role, Samuel said that he, as Siegfried, was “a bit jealous of the fact that Mrs Hall is away so often”. To which Anna, as Mrs Hall, replied: “You have said that I could go and do it so … there’s a war on, which is more important than your cold supper.”

All Creatures Great and Small Series 5 starts on Thursday, September 19, at 9pm, Channel 5 and My5.