Welcome to Yorkshire boss relives his childhood small screen debut in the original All Creatures Great and Small

In 1989, Welcome to Yorkshire boss, James Mason, played farmer’s son, Colin Appleby, alongside Robert Hardy as the original Siegfried Farnon. The storyline centred around a cricket match, which also saw Dalesman and extra, George Tunstall, acting as umpire.

The pair have now been reunited by podcast producers Helen Leavey and Simon Collins who are behind the Voices from Herriot Country series.

An interview with the two was recorded at Spennithorne and Harmby Cricket ground where the episode of All Creatures Great and Small was filmed.

Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of James Herriot’s first book, York-based writer Ms Leavey said they were “really chuffed” with the response from the podcast listeners.

“We are still getting a lot of new listens and some lovely comments,” she said.

The first few episodes of the podcast which features characters from the Dales, many of whom knew Alf Wight, the real life James Herriot, were released early to give people a boost during lockdown.

Now, the duo who are in the process of setting up their own production company, Mek It Media, are recording the final two episodes of this first series.

“We are looking forward to being out and about for that and we’ve been casting our minds to a series two,” she said.

She added that they would be “delighted” to hear from people of all ages who have interesting tales to tell about their Yorkshire lives.

Ms Leavey said she had a lifelong love of the James Herriot books and had been working with Yorkshire Vet, Peter Wright – who knew both Alf Wight and his partner Donald Sinclair (Siegfried Farnon) – on his two books had re ignited her interest.

A number of people on the podcast series knew the famous Yorkshire vets.

“It was lovely to hear these stories from people who knew them,” Ms Leavey said.

“I had been wanting to create a podcast for a while and having heard so many Herriot related stories and met so many endearing Herriot country folk, I knew there were tales the public weren’t hearing about.”

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James Mitchinson