Brian Sinclair (veterinary surgeon) Ministry of Agriculture's Sterility Advisory unit, rising to become head of the Veterinary Investigation Centre in Leeds. He was the model for the character 'Tristan Farnon' in Wight's semi-autobiographical novels, which were later adapted to the big screen in two films, and television under the name "All Creatures Great and Small". The fictional Tristan was portrayed as a charming rogue who was still studying veterinary medicine in the early books, constantly having to re-take examinations because of his lack of application, often to be found in the pub, and subject to tirades from his bombastic elder brother Siegfried. Unlike his
All Creatures Great and Small (TV series) one of the directors said, "Why don't we give [the Herriot part] to Christopher Timothy and "make" him a name?" In 2003, Timothy said that Alf Wight wrote him a letter after the series started, saying "You are the Herriot I wrote about". Siegfried Farnon, based on Wight's real life partner Donald Sinclair, is played by Robert Hardy. Writer Michael Russell sums up the character's composition thus: "He is capricious, cantankerous, whimsical, arbitrary, unreasonable, unpredictable, ill-tempered, extravagant, effusive, contradictory, etc., yet in the midst of all that, the most loyal and caring of friends." The cast met for the first