James Herriot vet, Peter Wright worked with Alf Wight at Skeldale House; years later, his work was featured on a multi-season television series on Channel 5 (UK), "The Yorkshire Vet". In his books, Wight calls the town in which Herriot lives and works Darrowby, a composite of Thirsk, Richmond, Leyburn and Middleham. He also renamed Donald Sinclair and his brother Brian Sinclair as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon respectively, and used the name "Helen Alderson" for Joan Danbury. Contrary to popular belief, Wight's books are only partially autobiographical, with many of the stories being only loosely based on real events or people. Wight's
All Creatures Great and Small (TV series) at all like that, but when we'd really got into it and were producing them at high speed, his friends used to come to me and say, 'You've got him, that's him.'" Upon first meeting Davison, Christopher Timothy joked to Bill Sellars, "Too tall, re-cast!" Davison was concerned: "I thought, 'What if they suddenly noticed I was quite a bit taller than Robert Hardy?'" Timothy continued: "He thought I meant it. He was horrified that I was trying to get him re-cast. I was in no position to do that and I wouldn't have done that joke for the world