Exclusive:The Yorkshire Vet Peter Wright: I never wanted to be on TV and now I want to give Jeremy Clarkson a run for his money

I wanted to find out the secret to this seemingly simple show's success - as well as his reaction to being slammed by former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson.

This so-called ‘showbiz spat’ is a world away from his home life with his wife Lin, living in the picturesque countryside on the outskirts of Thirsk.

Peter lives in a stunning farmhouse overlooking vast fields from each corner of his house. He can even see the house from where he grew up.

He spends his time between filming, speaking at events and riding his bike.

While he effortlessly seems to straddle his quiet rural home life with the attention of the media world, he admits that he never wanted to be on TV.

He had been on the verge of retirement before being approached by a Yorkshire-based TV production company Daisybeck Studios.

Peter said: “I was tainted somewhat by my old boss, Alf Wight, better known as James Herriot, because he didn't need the media in any shape or form.

“His books and ultimately the television programme All Creatures Great and Small spoke for itself. He used to shy away from the media to an extent because he was a shy man in many ways.”

Peter said the press would come up to “New Yorkshire” to find out the ‘dirt’ on Herriott following the success of BBC’s All Creatures Great and Small which peaked at 15 million viewers every Sunday.

He said: “I suppose that rubbed off on me so when Channel 5 asked a production company, Daisybeck Studios in Leeds, if they would find a veterinary practice in Yorkshire that had old-fashioned views, but were modernising back in 2014.

“They were looking for a practice with the Herriot ethos, but something that was modernised.

“We'd moved from 23 Kirkgate, which is now the World of James Herriot, which was our practice until 1996, we'd moved into purpose built premises in Thirsk so I suppose we fitted the bill.”

Initially, he turned down offers from an executive who visited him at Skeldale Veterinary practice.

He said: “I took an instant dislike to her. She was very loud and somewhat rude.My first reaction was no, definitely not, we're not getting involved with this lot.”

Daisybeck visited over 60 practices but it was Skeldale they wanted to feature despite the original scepticism.

“There were two things that made me think twice. One was the chap who runs the World of James Herriot”, he added.

“They were starting to struggle financially because a lot of the youngsters had never heard of James Herriot and of course the footfall at the Herriot centre had fallen off and he was struggling to make a living, so he asked me to help.”

Then in the spring of 2015, Paul Stead, the owner of Daisybeck Studios visited him.

“He was completely different to the woman who had been our go between”, Peter said.

“He had a very honest, beaming face, and he said just trust me. He said, ‘I won't let you down.
I promise you. I'm a loyal person and I will never ever let you down.’ He was a Yorkshireman.”

After weeks of deliberation, Peter decided to give it a go to help save the World of James Herriot and he trusted Stead because he was a Yorkshireman.

The pilot show proved a hit which led to the first series being commissioned. Now Peter, along with Julian Norton and the rest of the team, are busy filming series 20 of The Yorkshire Vet.

In “true Yorkshire style”, Mrs Wright explained to her husband why she thought the show was successful.

She told him: “People aren't interested in you, they're interested in your patients.”

He agreed he thinks the popularity is down to the patients featured as well as its location.

He added: “Yorkshire folk are so welcoming and embracing. They call a spade a spade. It's the warmness of the Yorkshire people, I think, that has helped make the programme what it is.

“And we have such a fantastic diverse culture in Yorkshire and when you put all those factors together. People often get lost into the locality of Yorkshire, and the whole escape to the countryside where people want to live somewhere like here.”

Peter said that a Channel 5 boss explained if The Yorkshire Vet had failed then there wouldn’t have been a remake of All Creatures Great and Small, nor Our Great Yorkshire Life.

He said: “I was stunned by that comment, but Ben's (Fowle, Head of Programmes at Channel 5) is very forthright with his views. His granny was from Yorkshire.”

One person who fails to understand the show's popularity as well as Peter’s ongoing success - such as featuring in a documentary on his life ‘The Peter Wright Story’ - is Jeremy Clarkson.

The former Top Gear host was up against The Yorkshire Vet and Springtime on the Farm - which is the Channel 5 series based at Cannon Hall Farm - with his Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm for a TV Choice Award 2025.

Wright said that Clarkson questioned Channel 5’s “love relationship” with Yorkshire and he pointed out “The Peter Wright Story,” saying “What’s all that about?”

He said Clarkson sometimes “forgets his Yorkshire roots.”

He said: “I know he was critical of Channel 5 and the fact they had fallen in love with Yorkshire. He struggled to understand what that was all about. Including the fact that they made a television programme about me called ‘The Peter Wright Story.’

“I’d love to meet him and tell him in true Yorkshire fashion what that was all about in language he’ll understand. I do think he’s been a wonderful advocate for farming, the farmers love him because he says it as it is. My wife loves Jeremy Clarkson.”

Peter added he is similar to Clarkson in that they both want to challenge the government and “inheritance tax.”

He said: “The government does not understand life in the countryside, they do not understand anything about running a business. Jeremy Clarkson does.

“Jeremy Clarkson shows farming for what it is. It’s a struggle. With farming you turn a large fortune into a small fortune.”

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