User Reviews

Thank goodness that with the departure of Calum and Deirdre as I expected, the show is coming back to what makes it great: local characters, glimpses into Yorkshire culture and history, a focus on truly rounded out engaging, primary characters and relationships with animals. The romance between those two dragged on and on and on with one trite and predictable obstacle to their love after another. And it took up so much time and space. I suppose those two were meant to replace Tristan and Peter Davison on the one hand, and the earlier romance between Helen and James, now pegged as middle-aged and dull. If so it was a spectacular fail. I understand Callum was based on a real life vet assistant to Alf Wright's practice, and while the ingredients were there to make him an interesting character, they rarely amounted to anything but a list of individual eccentricities that were never developed and always abandoned in favor of the awful boring and depressingly un-creative romance. Nothing against the actors: it was the imbalance and the thin scriptwriting around the two characters that I found frustrating. I'm very glad to have Willie Bannister return and replace Calum and I truly hope we will see Peter Davison/Tristan, who is irreplaceable, return at some point from Ireland. In the meantime, though, episodes like this are a delicious treat- as was the previous episode, also blessedly free of the dreary Deirdre and Calum romance.