All Creatures Great and Small (franchise) "James Herriot", and are set in the fictional town of "Darrowby", based on a combination of Thirsk, Richmond, Leyburn and Middleham.. In the books James Herriot work with fellow veterinary surgeons, Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, based on real-life counterparts, "Donald Sinclair" and his brother "Brian Sinclair" respectively. Wight also used the name "Helen Alderson" for his wife, Joan Danbury. In America the books were collected as pairs into omnibus volumes, as the publisher felt they were too short to publish independently. The title chosen for the first book in the series "All Creatures Great and Small" (and subsequently one of
All Creatures Great and Small (TV series) Davison, who plays Siegfried's boyish younger brother, Tristan (affectionately called "Mister Tristan" by housekeeper Edna Hall), whose character was based on Brian Sinclair. "One afternoon, my agent rang to ask how I felt about doing a small part at Birmingham repertory theatre, where Peter Farago, whom I'd worked with in Edinburgh, had taken over as artistic director," recalled Davison. "I asked how long it ran for, which was only a few weeks. This was a difficult one. I wasn't doing anything else but a few lines in Birmingham didn't sound particularly appetising. 'What do you think?' I asked. 'Well, it's