All Creatures creator Alf Wight, my fond memories of Yorkshire vet – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE return of All Creatures Great and Small to television has rekindled memories (The Yorkshire Post, September 1).

In 1971 I was the local police inspector at Thirsk where James Herriot’s creator, Alf Wight, was in practice. We were often inundated with Herriot hunters by the coachload. One morning I was in the Market Place watching a coachload being instructed by the courier as to where the veterinary surgery was and how to get there.

At this point Mr Wight walked close to them to get into his car and said to me: “Good morning Inspector.” I returned the compliment and, as he drove off, I said to the courier “You missed a treat there, that’s Mr Herriot” as I pointed to the departing vehicle. Alf was a lovely man with a lovely nature and, as they say in Yorkshire, had no side at all.

From: Anne Medd, Nether Poppleton.

RE All Creatures, the sound was not good – I’m not deaf. The housekeeper is far too young 
and the farmer’s wife who came out to James Herriot in a 
storm – her hair wasn’t even wet when we saw her inside the barn with the cow giving birth. There will also only ever be one Siegfried Farnon – Robert Hardy. Sorry to be the bearer of this news.

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James Mitchinson