How Yorkshire Dales businesses are preparing for All Creatures Great and Small tourism boom... eventually

The opening episodes of the new series of All Creatures Great and Small won huge critical acclaim and gave Channel 5 its biggest audience in almost five years as 3.3 million viewers tuned in to its debut - now businesses in the Yorkshire Dales where the programme is set are already starting to reap the rewards of the programme’s revival after an incredibly challenging year for tourism.

The series is based on the memoirs of vet Alf Wight written under his pseudonym James Herriot and follows a young James as he begins his first job in the fictional Yorkshire town of Darrowby in the 1930s after moving to the Dales from Scotland.

The books, first published in 1970, have sold more than 60 million copies across the world and in ordinary years the Dales attracts many national and international Herriot fans - including those who loved the original BBC series which ran for 12 years between 1978 and 1990.

Ian Ashton is managing director of the World of James Herriot visitor attraction in Thirsk which supplied props such as veterinary equipment to the new show. He says visitors are already bringing up the new series but expects the tourism boost from the programme to arrive in spring, after the show starts airing in America in January and hopefully when current international travel restrictions due to coronavirus have been eased.

“People are coming in aware of it but they were booked to come in before it launched,” he says. “When you talk to people they think it is fabulous. The next move will hopefully be springtime when people book in because of the new series. Our market is usually people from all over the world but at the moment we never see anybody from abroad, especially America. But if Covid lets us, the new version will be a fantastic opportunity for so many businesses.”

He says this year has been extremely challenging for many businesses in the Dales. “In the tourism business, it has been a disaster. The Yorkshire Vet [a Channel 5 documentary series based in Alf Wight’s former surgery] has been absolutely magic for us and we were looking forward to an absolutely bumper year but unfortunately Covid put the dampeners on it a bit. But I’m sure people will come out next year.”

Ashton says he is delighted with the new version of the programme. “It is absolutely fabulous. Everything is right about it - the scenery, the cast; the whole thing is fantastic.”

While much of the BBC series was filmed around Swaledale and Wensleydale, with Askrigg standing in as Darrowby, the Channel 5 version has used Grassington in Wharfedale (25 miles to the south of Askrigg) as its Darrowby. One of the businesses enjoying an immediate boost from the new show is the Stripey Badger Bookshop in Grassington, which stood in for greengrocer’s G F Endleby in the programme.

James Firth, who runs the bookshop with his mother Linda Furniss, says: “We have been busy since we reopened after lockdown but even in the week in the run-up to the first episode we had people coming in asking about the filming. We have got pictures up and all the Herriot books on display to try and capitalise on the interest.

“There have been plenty of people coming in because they wanted to see where it was filmed. Once it has been shown in America I think we will get an influx of tourists coming in to Grassington.”

Film crews were in Grassington last autumn and winter and Firth admits he had some nerves about how the programme would live up to the much-loved original series.

“It was very exciting but there was the worry of whether it was going to be any good. So far, it has just been brilliant. The first two episodes were phenomenal.”

With plans for a second series of the Channel 5 version to start filming next year, there are already moves afoot to ensure the Dales can make the most of tourists inspired to visit the area because of All Creatures for years to come.

The Dales Tourism marketing group is working with local businesses to give prospective visitors an ‘insider’s view’ of the Dales and has pulled together a list of the new filming locations, as well as Herriot-related experiences and farm stays on its dalesdiscoveries.com website.

Susan Briggs, who co-ordinates the marketing group, says work has begun with Visit England to use a new low-commission online booking system for the benefit of all Yorkshire Dales tourism businesses.

She says the fact a different location has been used for filming this series opens up further opportunities to attract tourists to different parts of the Dales. “Things like Heartbeat haven’t been on for ages but people still go to the Heartbeat locations. We don’t want it to just be scenery tourism - we want people to stay and spend their money. People find the traditional values and sense of community in All Creatures really reassuring. We are trying to show that genuinely still exists in the Dales.”

Among those selling the traditional Dales experience in a very modern way is Leigh Weston and Neil Heseltine of Hill Top Farm in Malham.

The working farm includes a holiday cottage and a converted barn capable of sleeping 32 guests. They use social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to promote their facilities to thousands of followers across the world - and have had previous success using the old series of All Creatures to bring in guests.

“I do lots on Instagram on my @hilltopfarmgirl account and people are always saying the scenery reminds them of James Herriot. I did a drive to Arkengarthdale and put it to the All Creatures Great and Small music and people loved it.

“We get lots of American guests via Instagram. Before we would get maybe one or two European guests a year - now it is Japan, Canada and Australia as well as the US.

“The new series will do wonders - it is just a good starting point for conversation.”

She says it is too soon to see the impact of the new show on bookings but adds there has been extra demand from domestic visitors this year, despite Covid restrictions limiting the use of the larger 32-person barn.

“Post-lockdown we have had tonnes of interest. We are getting lots of inquiries because people are nervous about going abroad. We are seeing a big volume of calls in what would normally be a quieter period. People have had a tough year and want to get away.

“When you watch All Creatures Great and Small, it is hard not to be swayed by the landscape because it looks absolutely amazing. When people are thinking about spring and summer next year and don’t feel confident about going abroad, it will help them think ‘maybe we will look at the Dales’.”

Thirty-five miles north, Upper Swaledale Holidays - which has a B&B, cottage and shepherd’s hut - is also still attracting visitors because of the original series.

Owner Glenda Calvert says: “A few years ago, we had a couple who had come all the way from Alaska simply because they loved the James Herriot series. We have had a young American couple with a baby who said they had come here because they had been brought up on James Herriot.

“We are a working farm and although this is not the area that Alf Wight practised in, these are the sorts of farm he would come to. One of the greatest compliments I was ever paid was by some guests who said they could just imagine they could just imagine the character of Siegfried walking in.

“The show is about a different time but you could come to the Dales today and I could show you the same types of characters now. Those old farming characters might have phones and maybe even the internet now but they are still very much here.”

Calvert has already written a blog post about the new version and says the new cast have been highly impressive - in particular Samuel West in the role of Siegfried which was famously played by Robert Hardy in the original version.

She says after the challenges of this year, the new series will rekindle interest in visiting the Dales. “I don’t see how it can fail. We will still be here next year - the Dales are not going anywhere.”

Americans ‘will be willing to travel across Dales’

The show’s new filming locations may encourage international visitors to commit to longer stays in the Dales, it is hoped.

Tim Durham from the Wensleydale Experience, which runs farm tours and has yurt accommodation, says: “James Herriot has had a massive impact generally and the first series is still having an impact in the area.

“The original series was based a lot nearer where we are. It is too early to tell but I can’t see how the new version in a new location can be a bad thing. It will pick up when North Americans can come back as they just love it in the Dales.

“They can’t believe when they come that in a short time you can go from the airport to being in the hills and the mountains out here as those journeys take a long time in America.”

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James Mitchinson