When a main character in a beloved series about rural vets has a baby, the showbiz golden rule about never working with children and animals has to be broken. Luckily, for the cast of All Creatures Great and Small working with a tot was a great experience, despite the mayhem and a few teething problems. Millions of fans of the Channel 5 hit will recall last year’s Christmas special where Yorkshire vet-turned-pilot James Herriot missed the birth of his son Jimmy. The heartwarming drama is back for a fifth series on Thursday and new parent James, played by Nicholas Ralph, more than makes up for lost time. Nick, 34, describes the introduction of a baby into the extended family of Skeldale House as “carnage”. He says: “It was absolutely brilliant, but there were teething -problems.” As babies can only work about two hours at a time, there were three little Jimmys as well as a plastic “jelly baby” version on hand. It took the six-month-olds a little time to get used to everyone and the strange environment of the set. Nick says: “But after that it was good, because you’d walk on set and see them and their face would light up in recognition. They would remember you. It was such a treat.” But the tots would not always behave and the older they got the more havoc they caused. Nick remembers one scene when the family were all sitting down to eat and Sam West, 58, who plays grumpy head vet Siegfried Farnon, was hemmed in by the pets in the room. “We got through most of the scene, then the baby just chucked his food on the floor and the dogs lunged for the food. Sam couldn’t get out of his seat. There’s happy accidents that you can play through, and some you can’t. We couldn’t use it because it was too much carnage.” And then there was the time one of the babies gorged so much fruit they were in danger of throwing up. Nick says: “We were doing a scene where Helen’s taking little Jimmy just past the surgery. She’s been picking strawberries and there’s a little basket on top of his pram. This little baby was just picking up a strawberry every time, taking one bite and then placing it down beside him. We didn’t really see just how many, but it was always just one bite. When we took him out at the end he was sitting on a bed of 30 strawberries in the pram.” Despite this Nick, reckons that he and Rachel Shenton, 36, who plays James’ wife Helen, far preferred working with the real babies than the fake one. He laughs: “I don’t know what the jelly baby was made of, but it weighed about 10 stone.” The actors, neither of whom have children themselves, took to playing parents quite easily – after a fashion. Nick says. “I haven’t held a lot of babies but I got a good bit of experience over the four-and-a-half months that we filmed. They’re six months’ old, so there is also the pressure of ‘I’m holding you, so don’t trip up over one of the dogs’ – because that’s happened before.” There is an added bonus of having the littles ones on set. Nick says: “You also know when the babies are in it that nobody’s looking at you, so it takes all the pressure off.” At times it must have felt more like shooting Call the Midwife than All Creatures Great and Small. He says filming with the tots completely changed the atmosphere on set. “There was a different kind of calm and -concentration when a baby was there. A different kind of focus. We have it with the bigger farm animals, because of the danger, but with the babies it was because they were so precious and delicate.” Nick reckons viewers may enjoy trying to spot the differences between the three infant actors in their various scenes. “The period costumes are just so cute, these little onesies made of wool and stuff. I think it’s uncomfortable probably, like our costumes sometimes. But when they’re all done up with the wee hats on and everything, no one should notice too much.” All Creatures Great and Small is Channel 5’s most popular show, with an average of 4.4 million fans per episode tuning in last year. In the new six-part series, set in spring 1941, James starts off away at RAF Abingdon but it’s not too long before he’s back in Darrowby along with Tristan, played by Callum Woodhouse, 30. Callum missed the last series as Tristan was away serving with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. Nick says it was great to have Callum back. “The show had a Tristan-shaped hole in it, but once he was back it was like he’d never been away. It’s been wonderful. We’ve a couple of lovely bits because James and Tristan have got this wonderful relationship, where they’re best mates, brothers. Siegfried’s up and rolling his eyes at them or getting frustrated, and then Mrs Hall’s taking care of them and pushing them in the right direction when they need that. It was wonderful to get to play some of that out again.” So is West anything like grumpy Siegfried? “I think everybody with their characters, there’s similarities and there’s other parts that are different,” Nick says tactfully. “One similarity is that Siegfried, even with his eccentricities, is an incredible vet and Sam West is an incredible actor. I’ve learned so much from watching him on set. And sometimes I don’t get my line out because I’m watching him. So, we have to go back and do the scene again.” He also loves working with Anna Madeley, 47, who plays much-loved housekeeper Mrs Hall who becomes a blackout warden this time around. He says: “Once she starts laughing, she can’t stop, and it is so infectious that it gets to us all. But she does try to still speak through the laughter, which is even funnier, because she’s almost in pieces, tears streaming down her face.” Nick hopes that all the core cast will remain on the show, with him, for many years. Each can do other roles for the six or seven months of the year they are not on location in the Yorkshire Dales. “I feel extremely grateful. There’s not many times an actor gets to play a character for more than a series, so I’m lucky to do five in this show, where it feels like a homecoming every time we go there and return to these wonderful characters.” Nick will pop up in an episode or two of another drama this autumn but he can’t reveal precisely what at this point. James is his first screen role and he would love different roles: “It’d be brilliant to play something a bit darker or grittier. I’d also love to do a rom-com. And a psychological thriller.” All Creatures Great and Small, Channel 5, Thursday, 9pm.
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