All Creatures Great and Small Series Five continues the heart-warming tales of James Herriot (Christopher Timothy), his wife Helen (Lynda Bellingham) and his volatile but warm-hearted partner, Siegfried Farnon (Robert Hardy). The period is now the early Fifties, but the Dales are slow to embrace the world of tomorrow. Tristan (Peter Davison) has left the Ministry of Agriculture to return to the Darrowby practice. Even with Calum (John McGlynn) on the team, the vets see little of the leisure that the modern age promises.