For some, the arrival of Santa marks the highlight of the season. For others, Christmas truly only begins once the familiar title melody of All Creatures Great and Small starts playing on their TVs.
This year, the Christmas Special of Britain’s most uplifting TV show airs on Christmas Eve, preceded by All Creatures Great & Small: Behind The Scenes which offers viewers a closer look at how the beloved series is brought to life. It’s a festive double bill that will be rather hard to top, even for Father Christmas himself.
With the title “Comfort & Joy,” the Christmas episode promises everything viewers have come to love about the series: heartwarming moments, a strong sense of community, found family, humour, and a touch of mischief.
According to the synopsis released by 5, Helen is under the weather, leaving James to step in and take charge of the village nativity play. Meanwhile, Tristan finds himself scrambling to secure a last-minute Christmas tree, while Siegfried is once again called out to Mrs Stokes’ farm, where Hilda the goat (who is already a familiar source of trouble and self-reflection) tests his patience yet again.
Back at Skeldale, Mrs Hall has her sights firmly set on winning the darts tournament at the Drovers. The big prize is a turkey, a rare luxury during the ongoing rationing. However, the arrival of an old friend threatens to throw everything off course, forcing both Siegfried and Mrs Hall to confront matters they hadn’t expected to face this Christmas.
Season 6, as a whole, very much centred on the bond Siegfried and Mrs Hall share. They have a unique companionship that has been tested over the past three years while Mrs Hall was in Sunderland caring for her injured son. In her absence, Siegfried fell apart, becoming little more than a shadow of his former self. In the opening episode of the season, he ran after Mrs Hall in an attempt to stop her from boarding the train back to Sunderland. She chose to stay in Darrowby, yet much of Season 6 remained shaped by Siegfried’s lingering fear of losing her again.
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| “Our Hearts Are Full” – ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, Pictured: Anna Madeley & Samuel West / © Playground Television UK Ltd. 2025 / © 5 Broadcasting Limited. All Rights Reserved |
In the season 6 finale, Siegfried comes to the realisation that the answers to all the questions in his universe seem to be her, and he finally puts it into words, admitting to Mrs Hall that he will always need her. While Audrey is less forthcoming with her words, her actions and several tender looks she gives him throughout the season suggest she feels similarly.
Some of the information released ahead of the Christmas Special may suggest that the episode could place a strain on what has been so carefully built between these two characters. However, it’s worth remembering that trailers are often edited to mislead, and that both the network and news outlets can only tease rather than reveal key developments. Descriptions such as “jaw-dropping” are deliberately vague, and can just as easily signal an emotional payoff fans have been waiting for as well as hint at narrative upheaval.
While Christmas dinner still needs to be secured for Mrs. Hall and Siegfried in the upcoming episode, actor Samuel West already knows what will be on the menu at home. The actor reveals that his family traditionally has goose for Christmas: “Except my elder daughter, who’s vegetarian – and we make our Christmas puddings. In fact, we make Christmas puddings for neighbours and friends as well. We normally make three or four, and I make brandy snaps and brandy butter.”
West also reveals that he takes his Christmas tree “very, very seriously. We have a real one – that’s the first thing. We try to buy a decoration from every place we go to as a family. Obviously, during COVID we didn’t add anything to the tree for 2020, but we made some gingerbread that said, “Forget 2020,” and we put that on instead. For instance, we went to Cadbury World in Birmingham by the canal, and we bought a little globe to put on the tree. The trouble is that if you do that, and you get maybe three or four new things a year – sometimes five or six if you’re lucky – the tree begins to look quite cluttered. So, you have to go bigger. I’m very lucky to live in a flat with quite high ceilings, and we normally get an eight-foot tree.”
Anna Madeley’s Christmas traditions, by contrast, are more understated but in no way less meaningful: “For my whole childhood we had the same plastic tree, one of those that you build up branch by branch. My mum only threw it away a few years ago. Now we usually have a small real one at home. We add a new decoration each year, often with personal memories attached or things the children have made, which is lovely.”
Reflecting on the Christmas Special’s nativity storyline Madeley remembers that when she was very little, she was an angel in a nativity play while her sister played Mary. “A shepherd kept prodding me with his crook so I walked off stage and sat at the back, refusing to take part. Not a great theatrical beginning.” Sam West’s own nativity memories are similarly self-deprecating: “I was a total failure as an actor at school. I was never in a nativity play, even though I went to a Church of England primary school.”
Much like the Christmas Special itself, these glimpses into the cast’s festive traditions underline why All Creatures continues to resonate so strongly, especially during the holiday season: there is no need to exaggerate. All it takes to make the holidays special is sincerity, warmth, and time spent with the people who matter most.
All Creatures Great & Small: Behind The Scenes airs at 8pm on 5 on December 24, followed by the All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special at 9pm.
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