All Creatures Great and Small will return for more episodes

Photo credit: Channel 5
Photo credit: Channel 5

All Creatures Great and Small will return for two more series and a pair of Christmas specials.

The big news of a third and fourth series commissioned was revealed on Saturday (January 8), only a few weeks after the show broadcast its latest festive special on Christmas Eve on Channel 5. The main cast will all return.

The family drama is based on the immensely popular series of novels by James Herriot, the pen name of real-life veterinarian James Alfred Wight.

Newcomer Nicholas Ralph stars as Herriot in a serialised drama that picks up in series three with various animal emergencies in the Yorkshire Dales on the eve of World War II.

Photo credit: Channel 5
Photo credit: Channel 5

Related: The best upcoming TV shows in 2022

Also starring in the Channel 5 adaptation are Mr Selfridge's Samuel West as fellow surgeon Siegfried Farnon, former Hollyoaks star Rachel Shenton as James' love interest Helen Alderson and ex-Coronation Street actor Nigel Havers as local racehorse owner General Ransom.

"It is clear that our viewers adore James Herriot's adventures in Darrowby and so do we at Channel 5. I am looking forward to us all being reunited with the Skeldale House family when series three arrives on our screens this year," Sebastian Cardwell of Channel 5 has said of the renewal.

Executive producer Sir Colin Callender also commented: "Everyone at Playground wants to thank Masterpiece on PBS [in the US], Channel 5 and All3Media International for their support for the series. But most of all we want to thank the audience who have so fully embraced the new series.

Photo credit: Channel 5
Photo credit: Channel 5

"It is their vocal and loyal support that has resulted in this ongoing commitment to the series and we couldn't be more delighted. It is a joy to produce the show but an even bigger joy to know that there is an audience all over the world hungry to revisit the world of Darrowby in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and to spend more time with the wonderful inhabitants of Skeldale House."

A previous TV version of All Creatures Great and Small, starring Doctor Who's Peter Davison and Harry Potter's Robert Hardy, aired from 1978 to 1990 on BBC One.

You Might Also Like