All Creatures Great and Small (film)

All Creatures Great and Small is a British film from 1975 copyrighted in 1974, directed by Claude Whatham and starring Simon Ward and Anthony Hopkins as the Yorkshire vets James Herriot and Siegfried Farnon. It is based on James Herriots first two novels, If Only They Could Talk 1970 and It Shouldnt Happen to a Vet 1972, and was given the same title as the 1972 US compilation volume of these two novels. A sequel, somewhat confusingly titled It Shouldnt Happen to a Vet although it actually covers the two following novels, Let Sleeping Vets Lie amp Vet in Harness, was released in 1976.

The script by Hugh Whitemore, focused very much on James, and played down Siegfrieds eccentricity for example, a speech he makes early in the film rebuking James for refusing to attend a call during the middle of the night is delivered straight, while in the book it was highly hypocritical, as Siegfried himself had earlier told James that he was spoiling the farmers by coming out at all hours.Having passed the British censors in September 1974, the film wasnt released untilMay 1975, when it opened in London at the small cinema Studio Two in Oxford Street. The Times film critic David Robinson didnt like it All Creatures Great and Small is so wholesome and warmhearted it makes you want to scream. not on account of these qualities in themselves, but because of the directors Claude Whatham inability to give them any more depth or meaning than a television series, but acknowledged that Anthony Hopkins and Simon Wards playing made their characters somewhat believable. ........

Source: Wikipedia