All Creatures Great and Small stars share Christmas traditions – and which character is the wisest
"The diplomatic answer is that they balance each other out very well."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Ahead of another heartwarming festive special, the cast of All Creatures Great and Small talk to Radio Times all about what to expect – and how they're spending their own Christmases.
Who is the wisest in All Creatures — Siegfried, James or Tristan?
Samuel West Siegfried thinks he’s the wisest and he is the oldest. But I think probably James is the wisest. He has had to grow up quickly recently because he’s become a dad, which Siegfried never did.
Nicholas Ralph James is very studious and great with the veterinary side of things, but Tristan is better with the social interactions.
Callum Woodhouse The diplomatic answer is that they balance each other out very well.
Who is the wisest actor?
Callum That’s probably Sam.
Nicholas Me and Callum make one fairly wise actor between us.
Samuel I may have helped Nicholas with where to stand when we started filming All Creatures, but he hit the ground running, so I wouldn’t presume to offer him any advice. We’re a wise ensemble!
This year, James is trying to think of the best gift for his son’s first birthday. What were the best gifts you received as a child?
Callum I used to be really into my comic book action figures. The first X-Men film ends with them on the Statue of Liberty and I got a model Statue of Liberty you could put Wolverine on. I still have it somewhere.
Nicholas My brother and I got a Nintendo 64 and that was all our Christmasses at once. We’re chalk and cheese, but that unified us.
Samuel A chemistry set, back when you could still poison yourself. It had a conical flask and a little spirit burner for heating things. I wanted to be a chemistry professor just for the crucibles and blowing things up.
What’s your Christmas Day like?
Callum At home in Teesside for games of charades, Pass the Bomb and Articulate. We’ll have breakfast with Buck’s fizz, then do presents and – you probably won’t print this – we basically start drinking early and stop drinking once we’ve all passed out, at roughly 6pm. The British way!
Nicholas Mine’s very similar. Buck’s fizz in the morning, Christmas music, a great singalong, open the presents, then just eating and drinking. And Christmas specials, baby.
Samuel I’m playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the RSC over the Christmas period – it’s perfect for Christmas, like a grown-up panto. I have a matinée on Christmas Eve and an evening show on Boxing Day – we’ve been invited by dear friends to a restaurant in London for Christmas. No one has to do any washing up. But I can’t overdo it because we’ve still got eight shows that week. All my friends, obviously, are coming on Twelfth Night itself.
As well as a time of joy, Christmas can be the time we miss people most…
Callum My Christmas Day schedule always involved going to all the grandparents’ houses after lunch and we don’t have that any more. We miss them most then, I think.
Nicholas My brother is in the merchant navy. My dad worked in oil, so he would be offshore sometimes when I was growing up, and that’s my brother now. This year, he’ll be back for Christmas, which just makes everything fun.
Samuel This is my first Christmas since Dad [Timothy West] passed. He’s the first close person to me I’ve ever lost. I don’t know what it’s going to feel like, except that there’s this big sucking minus in the middle of your tummy. But my parents, until quite recently, have been quite independent, so a lot of the time they’d be off on a cruise to India, back in February. So, they’re not going to be there again, but in a very different way.
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The All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special will air on Monday 23rd December at 9pm.
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