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) and all the scenes that [Peter Davison] was involved in, I extracted and took them down to the hospital, threw them on the hospital bed, and said, 'Learn those.'" This accounts for the three-week break in transmission dates between episodes 11 ("Bulldog Breed") and 12 ("Practice Makes Perfect") of the first series. "I was plated and screwed instead of plastered," recalled Timothy, "and I was back at work in nine weeks — which was insane, in retrospect: I could barely walk, I was terrified, I'd lost a lot of weight and everybody worked round me." "They would prop him up