Our take
The first wartime Christmas special is a different animal: blackout tape on the windows, an evacuee at the table and a farewell hanging over every scene. It still has a party, a kitten and a stocking full of presents, and young Ella Bernstein is a delight, but the heart of it is two brothers saying what they have never said. Bring tissues for the railway platform.
What happens
War has come to the Dales, and Skeldale House has taken in Eva Feldman, a young Jewish evacuee, who writes home that the household is like the characters in The Wizard of Oz. A stray cat at Mrs Pumphrey's has a kitten, and Eva names it Toto and feeds it. The household holds a belated Hanukkah for her. Siegfried treats River, a nervous racehorse with a bad foreleg, and its owner, his old army comrade Major Sebright Saunders, offers a bargain: get River fit to race and a colonel will keep Tristan from being called up. Tristan, bored and guilty at the quiet surgery, wants to go. When his call-up letter arrives Siegfried hides it, and when River stumbles he considers numbing the leg so the horse can run; Tristan reports the horse unfit to the racecourse vet. Mrs Hall, hearing that Gerald is leaving for a job in Hull, invites him to a Christmas Eve party that does not exist, and the house cobbles one together. At the party the brothers have it out, and Tristan insists on going. Gerald returns for his coat and Mrs Hall kisses him. On Christmas morning Eva receives ruby slippers, and after Christmas dinner Siegfried sees Tristan off at the station.
Can the kids watch it?
Rated PG by the BBFC for mild bad language, so fine for families, though the wartime farewell may upset younger children.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot
- Samuel West as Siegfried Farnon
- Rachel Shenton as Helen Alderson
- Anna Madeley as Mrs Hall
- Callum Woodhouse as Tristan Farnon
Guest stars
- Will Thorp as Gerald Hammond
- Patricia Hodge as Mrs Pumphrey
- Mollie Winnard as Maggie
- Tony Pitts as Richard Alderson