The WORST episodes of All Creatures Great and Small
Every episode of All Creatures Great and Small ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of All Creatures Great and Small!
In the mid-1930s James Herriot, who recently graduated from the veterinary college in Glasgow, finds work in the rustic Yorkshire Dales of Northern England. This heartwarming drama chronicles his encounters with the locals and the animals they depend on. Based on the semi-autobiographical novels of James Alfred Wight, OBE, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot.
#1 - Hampered
Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/10/1990
Siegfried is laid up at Skeldale with his foot in plaster. His dreams of mouthwatering meals prepared by Mrs. Alton are soon shattered by her regime of a strict diet "for an invalid". Tristan falls for the dark, sad-eyed beauty, Angela Mortimer, Mrs. Pumphrey's great-niece, who has been jilted by her fiance. Fortunately, the demanding dog Tricky-Woo provides an ideal excuse for Tristan to make a number of house calls. James impresses three hero-worshiping locals with his cow-curing abilities, and he learns to value their support when he has to judge the Darrowby Vegetable Show, with disastrous results.
#2 - A Cat in Hull's Chance
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/20/1990
There's unusual friction in the Herriot household when 12- year-old daughter Rosie announces that she wants to become a vet -- against her father's wishes. James goes out of his way to show her the arduous, dirty and dangerous side of his work, while Helen thinks he ought to encourage her. But treating her best friend's pony, which has tetanus, may prove too much even for the determined Rosie. Siegried, meanwhile, manages to lose Mrs. Pettinger's kitten Prudence, which escapes from the surgery and hitches a ride to Hull, causing consternation in Darrowby and mirth for Tristan.
#3 - A Grand Memory for Forgetting
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/27/1990
Siegfried is determined to discover who shot Korean War veteran Jacob Pearson's dog. The suspect is Captain Crawford's willful and surly 20-year-old son, Hugh -- a young man with problems beyond his pompous father's control. Both James and Siegfried have extraordinarily little success in extracting payment from wily farmer Dennis Pratt -- until they discover he may be sneaking his cows onto a neighboring farm to enjoy better grazing.
#4 - The Rough and the Smooth
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/11/1989
Siegfried insists on singing the praises of his new time- management system, a personal diary, much to the annoyance of James. James is particularly put out by Siegfried's successful demonstration to his bete-noir, the redoubtable Mr. Ripley. However, Siegfried's morning is spoiled when he has to deal with Humphrey, an exuberant Great Dane.
#5 - Where Sheep May Safely Graze
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/7/1989
When James treats a sick cat, he finds himself in an awkward position with Mrs. Pumphrey and Mrs.Tibbett. These two formidable and mutually ferocious Darrowby matrons compete both in presents for the invalid and in hounding James for information of the patient's progress.
#6 - Mending Fences
Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/21/1989
Jenny Garston and David Rayner, individually charming farmer and horse-breeder, have been sworn enemies since their earliest school days. When a triple birthday is marred by tragedy it falls to Siegfried to negotiate with the stony-faced neighbors.
#7 - Out with the New
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/6/1990
Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation is cause for Darrowby celebrations on a grand scale. James and Helen's 12-year-old daughter, Rosie, is due to be crowned, too -- as Darrowby's pageant princess -- by her reluctant elder brother, Jimmy. But a severe cough could put a fast end to her starring role in the festivities. Helen is keen to try Mrs. Alton's herbal remedy, but James tells her to give penicillin a chance first. Siegfried also resorts to traditional cures when he tackles a sheep with liver fluke, and is all too eager to pass on to James a rather smelly problem afflicting a dog called Wolfie.
#8 - The Nelson Touch
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/23/1989
Siegfried visits a farm to treat a sick cat and pulls off a brilliant piece of human diagnosis at the same time. He also gets an unexpected visit from the puritan Mr. Hopps -- who does not have an animal with him.
#9 - Promises to Keep
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/17/1990
It's raining cats — literally — when Tristan has to face the terrors of an enormous sow, Our Gracie, and her litter of piglets, who are due to be castrated. When the farm cats take a fancy to the anesthetic-stuffed offcuts, they start to doze off in some very unlikely places. Mrs. Clarke, a very determined old lady, is struggling to keep her farm running until she can hand it over to her young granddaughter, Mary. But she is reaching the stage when she can no longer handle the pressures, even with her elder granddaughter, Katherine to help — and Katherine is planning to pursue a nursing career in Africa...
#10 - Big Fish, Little Fish
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/28/1989
James is persuaded to play for the "Gentlemen's" team in the annual village cricket match. The village players are to be captained by he young, and already legendary, Freddie Trueman. Siegfried persuades Freddie to bowl flat out at the pompous Colonel Jenkins, captain of the "Gentlemen's" side. He lives to regret this when James is injured fielding and Siegfried is himself forced in to bat against "Fiery Fred".
#11 - City Slicker
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/13/1988
Andrew Bruce, an old school friend of James' comes to stay for a long weekend. Andrew, a city bank manager, is rhapsodic about the idyllic countryside and Yorkshire Dales courtesy, and he cannot understand why James should want to change such an ideal lifestyle -- until he finds himself in a rural nightmare.
#12 - Blood and Water
Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/30/1989
James meets a pair of elderly twins. Oliver and Roland Strong, rabbit breeder and prize cabbage-grower respectively, have divided the cottage left to them by their mother and have not spoken to each other for 50 years. Now Oliver is convinced that Roland has poisoned one of his rabbits.
#13 - The Female of the Species
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/5/1988
Siegfried gives a friend's offspring some experience in the surgery. Calum initially resents this, but bucks up when he sees the young student.
#14 - The Course of True Love
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/9/1989
The romance between Calum Buchanan and Deidre McEwan flourishes. Siegfried has been hoping that the love affair 5 would quiet down but instead it seems to be going full blast. However, the course of true love never runs smoothly, and it is left to Siegfried to help solve the young couple's problems.
#15 - The Jackpot
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/12/1988
James wears his shorts to a visit and is challenged to a race, while Jock, a once champion sheepdog, and delights in chasing cars from the farm.
#16 - The Playing Field
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/24/1988
A typical Yorkshire farmer is transformed into a cowboy; with Siegfried in London, Tristan is left with the worst patients.
#17 - Hail Caesar!
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/14/1988
The church fete looms for the Darrowby vets, along with the dreaded Scottish country dancing display. Can Tristan brush up his steps in time to woo the fair Deirdre? Or will his colleague Calum's back-to-nature approach sweep her off her feet?
#18 - The Salt of the Earth
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/22/1988
Siegfried is saddened by the death of a young bull terrier - one of an inseparable pair of dogs.
#19 - The New World
Season 6 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/14/1989
When Lady Hulton's cat falls ill, Siegfried embarks, with typical zeal, on updating the practice to cater for such refined clients. Lady Hulton, however, catches him out at every turn. James' problems lie with an affable but lazy farmer, Vernon Harker, whose plans to save himself from work even extend to marrying a tower of strength with a grown son to match.
#20 - A Present from Dublin
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/15/1988
Calum welcomes the new arrivals -- one that bites and one that fits Siegfried's cooking & cleaning requirements.
#21 - Cheques and Balances
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/29/1988
Siegfried is determined to make the errant farmers pay their bills.
#22 - Against the Odds
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/3/1988
James Herriot finds himself skiing through snowy dales to save a litter of dying piglets. Helen is confined to bed having a slipped a disc and Tristan is hoping that Siegfried will give him a job as he has resigned from the Ministry of Agriculture.
#23 - Here and There
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/2/1989
James meets Basil Courtney, a cowhand for a local farmer. Basil has worked in a circus, been a teacher, has knowledge of art and a nose for good wine! James is intrigued until he discovers that Basil has not been giving the farmer's calves their treatment and, as a result, they are showing no signs of improvement.
#24 - One of Nature's Little Miracles
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/17/1988
Calum Buchanan joins the practice along with his tame badger, Marylin. Pregnant ewes, the plumbing at Skeldale and Helen's lost engagement ring herald the new arrival.
#25 - When Dreams Come True
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/1/1988
Helen is finally up and about - only to face the morning after the chaos of Tristan's party the night before.