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) production team would meet in the studio that evening to see what state the studio was in. We'd need to check that the set building had been completed and if the sets were dressed ready for camera rehearsals to start the next day. The good thing about using the Birmingham studio was that they were excellent in design and set building. I liked working there, and they had terrific pride in "All Creatures". The first day — in this case the Sunday — the cameras, sound, lighting, designers, scenery changes and action properties, costume and makeup rehearsed all the scenes