CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: Across Yorkshire's moors and dales,
the world's most famous vets set the benchmark for animal care,
and James Herriot's legacy lives on.
COWS MOO
His former trainee, Peter Wright...
All my life I've enjoyed doing this.
...has been a Yorkshire vet for over 40 years.
I'm getting the impression you wouldn't take me on as an assistant.
Is that right? Probably.
Peter's old partner, Julian Norton...
With a gloved hand and a lubricated finger, I'm well equipped.
...now runs two practices... Come on, young man.
...one of them in the town where Herriot worked,
surrounded by the North Yorkshire landscape he loved.
Look at that. What a sheep!
And in the foothills of the Pennines...
I'm armed and ready.
...a new generation of town and country vets...
This is the closest tojames Bond I think I'm ever getting.
...also uphold the Herriot ethos.
MAN: Another day in paradise.
The teams are united...
We can probably knock this off ourselves.
PETER LAUGHS
...never taking their eyes off the ball...
Oh! Howzat!
THEY GRUNT
...as they help animals of all shapes...
Didn't think I'd be hugging a turkey today.
...sizes... That's more like pulling a calf out.
...types... Nearly clone. Nearly clone, Bertie.
...and temperaments. Ow! Bit me.
It's definitely not glamorous...
Penile amputations still make me squirm a little bit.
...but it's varied.
Hee-haw! You ought to know better. THEY LAUGH
It's rarely easy... HE GROANS
...but they continue the Herriot tradition...
Oh! ..treating all creatures...
That's it. There we go. There you go.
...great... Oh, Merlin.
Come on! ..and small.
HEY, yo! Ho-ho-ho!
As the seasons come and go...
...nature's creatures must adapt.
During the cold months,
they have to cope with Mother Nature's moods.
Then, as spring sounds its annual alarm...
...there's a grand awakening from the winter slumber...
SHEEP BLEATS
...as migrating birds return
to make the skies above the rolling hills of Yorkshire
their home once more.
In Wetherby, Julian's just made his return to the practice
after his own hiatus because of a serious mountain bike accident.
And this isn't going to be a gentle first afternoon back.
A little French bulldog needs his help.
Hello, Vera. How are you feeling? Not too good.
Steady. Take it easy. Ooh, you do look sad, don't you?
Poor old Vera.
So, Vera's really poorly.
She's got a condition called a pyometra,
which is a bad uterine infection.
She's come in this morning
with a characteristic discharge from the vulva,
and it's, er... It doesn't look very nice.
She's got a high temperature, and she's been sick,
and she's quite poorly, really.
Ancl we're gonna operate shortly to remove the offending pyometra
and hopefully make you feel a lot better.
On hand to help easejulian back into the surgical fray...
Come on, then, you.
...is nurse Lucy. Let's push this.
So, have you missed me, Lucy? I have missed you.
This is an exciting op to get you back into it, isn't it?
Yeah. You don't know what it's gonna be like
when you get in there.
It's lovely to have him back.
We get on like a house on fire, don't we, Jules?
We do. SHE LAUGHS
Now, if I'm doing anything a bit wrong, just tell me.
Don't worry. Oh, I will.
I don't think I've forgotten, but just in case.
It's been six weeks since I've been operating.
It's long enough to forget.
As Julian worries about being a bit rusty...
Whoops.
...Don and Sue are concerned about Vera.
Vera, it's my son's French bulldog.
She's a lovely dog.
Right, let me get a blanket, then we'll move it through. Yeah.
'Kids adore here. Absolutely adore her.
'I don't think they know we've brought her today
'cos it'd just upset them anyway.'
But, no, it's worrying cos they're like your children, aren't they?
Right. I'm in.
Are we good to go? Yeah.
'This is a very serious illness.
'She's, like, got a very big internal abscess
'inside the walls of the uterus.
'Ancl at the moment, that's making her feel very poorly.'
The main thing is to spot the problem quickly
and then to sort of deal with it quickly.
And without that, you've often got clogs that will...
that can die if, er... not addressed.
Across Yorkshire,
Shona is on her way from The Huddersfield Hospital
to Tom's farm.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. HE SHUSHES GENTLY
He's concerned about one of his young heifers.
Unfortunately, it's been bullied by some of the bigger cows,
and it created some sort of problem with the leg.
I noticed that she were lame and not just looking happy, really.
And since putting the call into Shona...
Morning, Tom. Morning. You all right?
How are you? Yeah, good, thanks. You? Yes, thanks, yeah.
...the situation has become much more serious.
Bit of a shock this morning.
The little heifer you come to look at? Yeah?
It's had a calf as well, overnight. Oh, right.
There were nothing there at all last night.
She's actually too young to have had a calf, really.
But she's a heifer that's been brought in.
Didn't look like she were in calf at all. Total surprise, like.
She's still hobbling about.
Fingers crossed, we can get the leg right
and see how they go on.
Right. I'll come and have a look at her. Yeah.
Oh, in't it bonny?
She feels warm. Come on, little 'un.
Come on, wiffy waffy. Ancl it's had some colostrum.
Just feels a bit empty, just now, doesn't it?
Think it's worth...?
I think it's worth giving it a load, yeah.
Have you had a rough night?
Right, we'll have to sort your mum out, calf...
so you've got a mum, hopefully.
Can you see that big lump there?
Yeah, and she's quite... standing with her legs quite far forward.
See the roundedness there?
I think the hip... hip's perhaps popped out.
My first thoughts, looking at Mum, are not good, really.
There's quite a lot of swelling over the hip.
If she has dislocated it, it's a painful condition,
causing more and more trauma over time
and grating on the actual pelvis bone which it should sit in,
so we can't really just leave her wandering around in a pen.
It's just gonna cause Mum too much pain and distress,
and she's just gonna get more and more unwell over time.
If it is that, I'm afraid, really,
the only thing we can do is put her down.
But with the newborn looking to her mum,
Tom and Shona are desperately hoping something can be done to save her.
Where there's life, there's hope, in't there?
You've just gotta try and do your best with what you've got.
Ideally, we'd save the mum in this scenario
because she has bonded with the calf overnight.
We need to have a closer look and see if there's anything we can do.
Who have we got here? He's called Rebel.
Will Rebel yell when Peter treats his serious problem?
That's not healthy. It certainly isn't normal.
And Julian's rocked...
It's... Oh! HE EXHALES DEEPLY
...on his return to surgery. Oh, God!
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: In Wetherby...
Nine o'clock on Friday, sweetheart.
...Bev and Sarah are feeling the heat.
I need a bigger... Think I need a bigger fan.
There was a lady in the supermarket behind me, and I was just paying,
and she went... HOARSELY: "I'm really sorry.
"I just need to have a moment." I went, "You all right?"
She went, "I've been up all night with my hot flushes,"
and the woman on the till was exactly the same.
"I'm really sorry. I've got it as well,"
so you end up having a conversation.
That's normally mine and Bev's topic of conversation,
is menopausal misfits that we had. Yeah. I bypassed it.
THEY LAUGH
You don't need a waft, then? I don't need a waft.
THEY CHUCKLE
Yes, it's not pleasant.
No, I best leave that on, actually. I daren't turn it off just yet.
BEV LAUGHS Whew!
What are you gonna be like in the summer, love?
Tell me about it.
In theatre, the heat is on Julian,
who's performing his first operation since his own knee surgery.
JULIAN: Oh, interesting.
He and nurse Lucy are trying to save French bulldog Vera
by removing her infected uterus.
Oh, that's... Oh, Christ!
HE EXHALES DEEPLY
Oh, God!
Not quite sure what the best way of...
keeping all this out is.
Let's get some barrel clamps... cos this is just pouring out.
This has ruptured just literally as I got it out.
It popped. Had that happened before the surgery,
or had we delayed, or had Vera's owners not noticed,
that would've resulted in, erm...
pretty much certain death, I think, for Vera.
So, luckily, we've, erm, got to it before that point.
But yeah, that's pretty, er, tense.
At least it didn't burst inside you, girl.
Yeah, that would have been, um...
been Vera's...
last, um...
last moment.
We need to get the uterus out fairly quickly.
It's a bit more urgent
because it's actually ruptured in one point.
Oh, she probably feels better that's out of her.
She will do, yeah. Should be fine. Perfect.
Ugh, stinky.
It just smells, yeah, like...
rotten. That's the... That's the word I'd say for it.
With the infected uterus removed,
it's a small step towards a full recovery for Vera...
and Julian.
It feels good to be back. I think this is my place.
This is where I should be.
Ancl it seems, apart from a rather challenging surgery,
it seems like I've still got it.
There. You wouldn't know there's been any...
drama under that.
I'm quite tired now. My leg's hurting.
Vera is doing OK now.
She should be feeling a lot better
as soon as she comes around from the an aesthetic,
and then fingers crossed.
She'll stay on the drip and the antibiotics this afternoon
and maybe home either later today or tomorrow.
Snoring away like a good 'un.
I've coped OK. My leg withstood the surgical time.
It's a little bit sore now, and it's a bit swollen,
so I'm gonna go and sit down and have a cup of tea,
and lift my leg in the air, so...
So, yeah, it could have been worse.
Um, a bit more of a dramatic clay than I was intending,
but, um, I guess that's the nature of being a vet.
Across Yorkshire...
COW MOOS
Her other leg's collapsing a bit, isn't it?
...Shona's made the journey from the Huddersfield hospital
to Tom's farm,
and they aren't hopeful for a new mum with a hip injury.
Ch-ch-ch-ch.
When we've got a cow with a calf at foot,
the life of the calf comes into the equation as well.
The problem being, if we do have to put the mum down,
calf then doesn't have a mum to feed her.
Poor girl.
It'd be a lot better if we can save the cow and rear the calf.
This bone here is the front of the pelvis.
The spine's there,
and the hip should be about here.
It's a ball and socket joint.
Ancl if that ball has come out of the socket,
it's moving around in all the soft tissue in that area.
Basically, the hip bone should be like that.
Ancl this is the leg bone and it's come up and over.
So that's what all this swelling is here...
SHE SIGHS
"unfortunately.
COW MOOS
She has dislocated her hip.
COW MOOS
Some strong force has pushed this out and up.
That's why this side is so big and swollen there.
You can feel it's absolutely solid.
I was kind of hoping there might be something like a haematoma there
that was just making her that lame.
I mean, there's nothing that we can do for that
that's gonna benefit her welfare.
Ancl I think, you know, even... even giving her some painkillers
to keep her on the calf isn't...
isn't gonna be a good idea really either. Ah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I think we'll have to let her go.
COW MOOS
Tsh.
I think the best situation is that we, unfortunately, put Mum down
so she's not suffering from this anymore.
And we find someone to wok after the ca“.
It's not what I wanted to hear,
but these things happen and you...
I try and be optimistic in farming, you can't not be.
At least we've got a little heifer calf.
It's not good, but there's a little bit of hope, in't there, like? Yes.
Sad ending, but it's making the best out of a bad situation, really.
It looks a good little strong calf.
Next 24 hours, get some colostrum into her.
We'll take her back to the other farm where we live,
and we'll have to hand rear her. We'll try us best with that.
And, yeah, we'll see how we go.
At the practice in Kirkbymoorside,
the waiting room is full of pets
who were lovingly chosen by their owners.
Are you going to come?
But for Brenda's aptly named cat,
it was the other way round.
He's called Rebel. He belonged to someone else.
And then he decided he didn't like a new cat
that he's owner had taken in,
and he came to live with us.
He just came... came across the field and decided he'd stay.
He's very good company. He's always with me.
If I'm in the garden, he's with me.
If I sit down, he wants to be on my knee.
But Brenda's had to bring Rebel to see Peter, with very good cause.
He's got a large lump on his head.
I'm worried about it. Very worried.
Mrs Purcell? Yes.
Hello. Good morning.
Who have we got here? He's called Rebel.
Let's go through and have a proper look at him. OK.
Right, Rebel.
Oh, crikey. I can see what your problem is.
It doesn't hurt him.
Some of these things, like growths and, you know, cancerous growths...
Yes. ..they're not painful.
It started as a tiny little thing.
Just tiny. Yeah. Yes.
It's just getting bigger and bigger.
You can't leave that. Ancl I think I can get that off.
There's also one starting here.
That's how this started. Did it? Mm.
Yes, I'll have a look at that as well.
Right, Mr Rebel.
When I finish the operation, I'll give you a ring. Yes.
I'll let you know what we're doing. That would be lovely.
Thank you very much indeed. I'll speak to you later.
Yeah, thank you. I know you'll look after him.
I'll look after him. OK?
My biggest concern with this lump, it's ulcerated and it's growing.
So it is tissue that's out of control.
It's cancerous, and we need to give it a reasonably wide berth.
That's not healthy.
It certainly isn't normal.
It's going to continue bleeding, if we leave it.
It's going to continue annoying him.
Ancl it's going to continue growing.
This is looking, uh, a pretty horrible tumour.
Not nice at all.
Ancl this was never going to get any better in any way.
It's only going to gradually get worse.
So, really, it's something that does need removal now.
Coming up...
Julian may be back in the saddle...
Ah, these harnesses, they're terribly difficult.
...but his patient isn't.
Oh, no, no, no. It's THAT way.
No, cos that's upside down. Oh, no, that's upside down.
And Matt is on his own...
David's ducked out just in time to leave me the angry one.
...to face a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Ancl he's muttering something to Matt.
MATT CHUCKLES
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: At the practice in Kirkbymoorside,
Peter and nurse Imogen are operating
to remove a nasty tumour
from the head of 15-year-old cat Rebel.
I'm just working my way slowly round it now.
There's our mass removed.
So, I'm just going to take a little bit more skin
off this side, just in case there's any microscopic spread
that we can't physically see.
I had a cancerous lump. Really? What on?
My back.
The doctor said, "|t looks like a sebaceous cyst to me.
"I'll take it off for you while you're here."
It wasn't a nasty-nasty, but it frightened me, really.
Because, uh, I thought it was just like a cystic thing. Yeah.
So, I do understand Rebel's situation
and the owner's situation here. Yeah.
Just going to, um, have a look at this other one now
at the side of his face.
This is a very weird lesion.
The edges of this are abnormal.
This is almost certainly another cancerous mass.
I've just incised all the way round it
so we can then just remove this thing as well.
Because this will develop in the same way as the other one,
if we don't, uh, if we don't take it off.
Right.
There we are. Thing's off.
Right.
Really close to the corner of his mouth here
so I don't want to stitch through his lip.
Well, that's better. Excellent.
What we can do with these masses that we've removed
is send them off to the lab for histology,
and that can tell us then what we're dealing with,
how nasty it is.
You can see there's normal tissue underneath there.
Ancl what I've clone now is taken those extra margins off
around this mass, so hopefully, we should be fine.
At the practice in Wetherby...
Hello, Vera. You're looking a lot better.
...Vera the French bulldog is ready to go home,
afterjulian removed her infected uterus.
Lucy, I'm gonna need some help. It's one of these harnesses again.
So long as he and Lucy can work out...
If you clip the lead on there, then that's...
Oh. That's easier than it was.
Is that not the clip for the lead? The other way?
...how to put on her harness.
Sorry.
I think... Oh, that doesn't look right either, does it?
No. Like, no way looks right.
The delay isn't helping Don and Sue,
after a stressful day for the whole family.
They'd be devastated if anything happened. Yeah.
My grandson's been crying, waiting for her to come.
Come on. I've never been in this predicament before.
These harnesses, they're terribly difficult.
And the grandkids might have to wait a little longer.
I don't think that's right, Lucy, cos look where it goes.
You wouldn't have it there, would you?
Oh, I10, no, no.
It's THAT way.
No, cos that's upside down. Oh, no, that's upside down.
Well, she's only got to walk from here to the consulting room,
so if we've clone you wrong, we can easily...
Come on then, girl. Come on Vera, we're going home.
Do you want to come through?
In fact, here she is. She's coming to see you.
Hello, darling. Hello, baby. I'll let you take that lead.
We've been struggling with the harness to work out
which way up it goes. Oh, we weren't sure neither.
So, it was, um, very dramatic.
And I'm very glad, very, very glad we did it today rather than waited.
If we'd have been another 12 or 24 hours,
there's a very strong likelihood
that that would have burst internally. Yeah.
And then I think she'd have died. Um, so, luckily, that didn't happen.
Ancl luckily, it's all out. Thank you, Julian.
All right? No, no problem. No, it's nice to be helpful.
Right. Thank you. Good stuff.
Yeah. Nice to see you again. Ancl see you next week, Vera.
Ancl then hopefully, we'll have worked out
the mystery of that harness.
So, Vera's really on the mend already.
Um, the biggest hurdle is... is past,
and she's on her way back home.
From now on, she's obviously not quite out of the woods,
but she's definitely in a much better place
and taking it easy, rest, recuperation. A bit like me.
As a new day dawns in Yorkshire...
...Shona is hoping it'll be a happier one,
after a badly injured cow who'd recently given birth
had to be put to sleep.
It's always really sad when an animal is in pain,
for one thing, and there's nothing we can do to fix it...
"especially when it's a mother to a little baby.
And, you know, we're just hopeful that this calf's doing well, really.
And that we've made the best of a bad... a bad 'gob.
The calf needed round the clock attention from Tom and Anna.
The idea was to get it on a bottle and hand rear it.
It was quite difficult, to be fair.
We spent a couple of clays stomach tubing it, didn't we?
Ancl then we were almost to the point of giving up hope...
...but once we got it up and drinking,
we sort of knew we were heading the right way.
Hello. How are you both doing?
Yeah, good, thank you. Good.
Is this our little friend in here? It is, yeah.
Oh, she's cute, isn't she? Yeah.
She's still diddy.
It was such a shame about her mum, wasn't it?
It's horrible when we have to make those kinds of decisions.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
But it was the bonus to see her there as well, wasn't it?
We're pretty pleased, really.
It was a good outcome,
all things considered, in a way, wasn't it? Yeah.
Who's her friend?
Well, we're going a bit soft in us old age, I think.
So we thought we'd might as well feed two calves as feed one. Yeah.
So, um, yeah. Yeah, we've got...
So you went and bought another one to feed? Yeah.
Yeah. just bought a bit more weight. Yeah.
I think they do better as well, don't they,
when there's a few of them? Yeah.
They're very sweet. What are you doing at the back?
It's really nice to see this little calf doing so well.
Being really well looked after. Treated like a princess in here.
They've not had any breakfast this morning,
so we thought we'd give them a feed while you're here.
Oh, yeah, that'd be great.
Oh, here she comes.
She's grand, isn't she, Tom?
She's a strong little calf. Come on.
Oh, that's brilliant to see. Yeah.
You're keen on that, aren't you?
Hello. Do you want some as well?
You are greedy. You are.
You're desperate for some more, aren't you?
This is a great thing to do as a vet.
You know, it's definitely one of the perks of the job -
seeing baby animals doing so well.
There you go, you've clone.
SHONA CHUCKLES A milk foam moustache.
I think they've both had their fill now. Yeah, that's it.
Do you want to fit in my truck?
She's got the life of Riley really, all things considered.
Ancl Tom and Anna have clone a really good job looking after her.
Ancl definitely made the best of a bad job with us losing her mum.
Bit of a sad start to the story, but a nice ending, for sure.
In Kirkbymoorside, Peter recently removed two tumours
which he suspected were cancerous from Rebel the cat's head.
Come on, turn round.
Today, Brenda's brought Rebel back to the practice,
hoping the operation has been successful.
Brenda, would you like to come through? Yes.
Nice to see you, Rebel. Hey?
He's not too keen to see you.
HE LAUGHS
He's been really good.
It's been wonderful.
It's never leaked at all, or bled. It's been so dry.
But the good news was, I took two extra strips
either side of the mass, which I sent off to the lab.
They were clear of any cancerous tissue.
Oh, that's lovely.
Yes, it was a cancerous mass,
but the good thing is, we've got the whole thing away.
That'll put a smile on his face when he gets that off.
There you are, Rebel. There now, is that better?
That's lovely.
Well, that looks as if it's healed nicely,
so I think we're going to take those out for you.
REBEL MEOWS
He says, "Mind my whiskers." Yes.
BREND A CHUCKLES
Yes. That's it.
Lovely. Thank you.
To have those stitches removed and see how the wound's healed
has really, uh, put a spring in my step this morning.
It's lovely to see. Thank you very much, Peter.
You'll be a good boy, won't you?
We should have no more problems with it now.
So I'm very happy with the... with the outcome.
And a couple of weeks later,
for Rebel, things are looking up,
while his cat-loving owners like looking back.
We've been married 70 years and all that time we've had cats.
Come on, Rebel.
Yes, we love cats, don't we? Yes, we do. Yes.
We first met, I used to work at the dentist,
and John came to the dentist.
Ancl that's how we met. We married the following June.
Come on, Rebel. Good puss.
His head was healed very well.
He was all right straight away, wasn't he? He was, yes.
He's just back to normal, really. Yes, he is.
So, all's well now.
He's been a lovely cat.
Really has. Mm.
Over in Huddersfield,
Matt's next patients have just arrived at the animal hospital.
Tonight's job is vasectomising rams.
It's still the one procedure that makes me cringe a little bit to do.
With three Rams to tackle, David's here to help and learn.
I've not seen one in years, actually.
So, Matt's kindly letting me come along today.
Hopefully, get stuck in and update my knowledge.
All right?
And farmers Ian and Rosie...
So, these are the three victims, eh? Yeah.
...know that extra manpower will be useful.
Yeah, we were chasing them round the field for a good ten minutes.
One of them is a bit of a handful.
Shall we have the nice one first? All right, you're tup one.
Come on, pal.
The reason that we vasectomise tups
is because we want them to have all the testosterone,
all the hormonal sex drive to mate.
Three, two, one. I've got it.
MATT GRUNTS
Essentially, we use these tups to warm up the flock,
as it would be, to get them super fertile,
so when the main tup goes in, he can get them all in lamb.
The whole thing's a warm up for the main event.
And the first patient is just a warm up, too.
He's the youngest out of the three, so he's more calm.
He's had a bit more attention than the others.
Oh!
Although, Matt's just realised
this might not be an easy start. after all.
He's got one that's a lot smaller than the other.
There is a bit of discrepancy in testicular size,
but that is quite abnormally small, is that.
It might mean it's a bit trickier for the vasectomy.
I suppose, really, it's quite good he's going for a teaser tup,
because questionably, he's got a bit of a mini one, don't you, chief?
So, here we go.
This is the faff test bit of it.
So, I need to go through another little layer,
and then we'll be there.
DAVID: So much more fiddly than a castration.
Oh, gosh, it is, yeah.
Because there's a slight mismatch in the testicle size,
I think Matt's slightly concerned that the length of cord
that will be exposed is less in the second one,
which I think is why he's left it for me.
LAUGHTER
Right. There you go. Yeah.
It's definitely a lot smaller than the other side.
My theory was to show the nice, easy one, what it should look like,
and, well, David's a big boy,
he can go in at the deep end, I'm sure.
Doing it makes me squeamish.
Ancl watching it makes me a bit more squeamish.
It's just a little bit of knack to get in,
exactly in the sweet spot, and getting it out.
I'm pretty sure that's it there.
Yeah. It's beautiful. That's it there.
It's those little wins that you like as a vet.
It's like, "|'ve got it, yes!" Yeah.
The penis is still there. We're safe, you know.
Cool. I'm pretty happy with that.
Really good to refresh my memory there.
Got a whole flock of sheep to see and a couple of horses now,
so I'm gonna leave the last tup or two to Matt.
SHEEP BLEATS
He's the one that's a bit... Spicier.
Yeah. Shall we get him clone?
It's up to you. Yeah, you can do. Excellent.
All right, let's get him clone.
Sounds like David's ducked out just in time
to leave me the angry one.
There we go.
His mouth's going. He's muttering something to Matt.
LAUGHTER
He looks like he's gonna bite Matt's head.
Still to come...
Good girl.
...a family dog walk, but is Vera's veterinary journey over?
On t'way home, when she got her stitches out,
she were really excited.
And a team vet walk...
PETER CHUCKLES
...although, one has a sick note.
I've been a good patient, although I won't tell the doctor
that I've been in the pub all afternoon.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: At the animal hospital
in Huddersfield,
Matt's vasectomising three of Rosie and Ian's tups.
I don't think he's, uh, very impressed with this job.
And with David gone, he only has vet student Emily as back-up.
I have to say, I'm very glad that I've got Ian and Emily protecting me
from, well, kicks and bites and everything.
But he's mouthing something to me now, saying,
"|'m going to get you", so I don't feel safe just yet.
That's two out of two clone.
Come on, pal. Last of the three.
Strap me in.
Ready?
And we're up.
OK.
We'll have him clone and dusted in no time.
I feel like he understands why he's here,
and he understands that he's keeping his testicles,
which in the veterinary world is quite a lucky thing.
There we go.
Right, clone.
All right. Three, two, one, hup!
There we go.
Come on, you. Come on, then.
They seem OK, yeah. Happy with the procedure and how it's gone.
One or two wiggles, but nothing so serious.
Soon got them sorted out.
Thank you. No worries.
So, just keep them in tonight, they've had a bit of sedation.
They should be absolutely fine.
Thank you very much. No worries.
See you next time.
In the heart of Wensleydale in North Yorkshire,
the River Ure flows dramatically over Aysgarth Falls.
James Herriot wrote, "|t's wonderful here.
"The river has infinitely varying moods -
"a torrent after much rain or snow,
"but in dry weather there might only be a trickle."
And today, Peter is here to see
the majesty of the Falls for himself.
This is where my old boss, Alf Wight,
better known as James Herriot, used to work in the 1940s.
He used to visit a lot of the farms round here,
and he used to stop and take in a lot of the views,
such as the Falls. Ancl he fell in love with it.
Ancl who can blame him, really?
Herriot's famous connection to this part of Yorkshire
has led to his name being given to a walking route, the Herriot Way.
And Peter has laced up his trusty old boots
to follow in the footsteps of his old mentor.
But he won't be walking alone.
Peter, how are you? How are things? Hi, Peter.
Nice to see you. Nice to see you.
MATT: Absolutely stunning, is this.
It's putting on a good show today, isn't is? It's gorgeous.
I don't fancy a swim, but, uh, you know.
I've just realised I left my trunks at home,
so you guys go ahead, I'll... LAUGHTER
I know you have some beautiful places round where you live,
but I thought I'd like to show you some of North Yorkshire's finest.
And where better than the Herflotway?
It's a 52-mile circular route.
We're doing 52 miles this morning?! No, no, no, no, no.
This is where Alf Wight used to work. Yeah.
We're lucky, we get a bit of time off.
Alf Wight had no time off, really.
Ancl just a couple of miles from here,
he stopped at a pub on his honeymoon.
He did a tuberculin test while he was here.
What did his new wife think to that? I think she was given the clipboard.
LAUGHTER
Well, shall we make a move, do you think? Yeah.
Right, let's go. Lead the way.
I don't know about you, but I've never been to Aysgarth Falls before.
I've never been to Aysgarth Falls, but they were really impressive.
Absolutely stunning. These two love the water, my dogs.
And I kind of was just quickly getting them on the lead
cos I was thinking, you don't wanna to be jumping in there.
It looks a bit wild, doesn't it?
Come on, then.
Keeping dogs Yogi, Saxon and Sansa out of the Dales water isn't easy.
Good dogs.
It's all right. Good boy.
But Rowan's husky Rupert...
It's OK. Come on. ..clearly prefers the snow.
He's a bit scared of water.
I'm actually quite surprised he went in.
Good boy.
PETER CHUCKLES
It's really nice of Peter to have invited us up.
Ancl it's absolutely gorgeous. Proper Herriot country.
Usually, when me and David are out together,
in recent times, it's been on a calving,
so it's nice to just enjoy ourselves and have a clay off.
We have to cover all the on-call for the practice,
so it's nice that the four of us
have managed to not be on-call this weekend.
It's great to actually come up and explore Herriot country,
and hear it pretty much from the horse's mouth
about the stories that you read as a kid.
I'm sure when he was working up here
that he would just stop his car
and just marvel at the views and the scenery.
Ancl I'm sure he would have a dog with him as well,
because when he was at work, he always had a dog with him. Yeah.
Does anybody want a cup of tea? Sounds like a good idea.
All right. Let's have a sit down.
That's a well loved flask. It's a proper Thermos.
I told Mrs Green I was coming,
and she sent me with some chocolate bars.
Ooh! She said, "|t's all got to be eaten up."
Oh, I'm sure we can oblige. So get them eaten.
Oh, God. Well, Mrs Green didn't want us to starve.
It's not often five vets get to sit down together
and have a brew, is it?
The best thing is when you're just finishing a lambing
or a calving or a caesarean, and they say,
"I'll just put the pot of tea on."
Doesn't that taste like the best cup of tea as well? The best, yeah.
I had one recently where the farmer said,
"I'll even treat you to a fresh tea bag."
I know that he regularly... That's the Yorkshire spirit.
That's such a Yorkshire farmer trick, that.
There's always a bit of cow poo or a few hairs that drop in
and give it a bit of a protein kick as well, in't there?
LAUGHTER
At the practice in Wetherby,
another cured patient will be out walking again soon.
All ready to go home?
Good girl.
Although, maybe not today.
Come on. You're very sleepy, aren't you?
May have to be carried. She's very tired, bless her.
So, she's probably gonna be tired this afternoon.
Let her just chill out,
but she's been such a good girl for us, haven't you?
Oh, my girl. Her little tongue's hanging out, isn't it?
Oh, thank you so much. No problem.
Meanwhile, a dog the team helped earlier is now full of energy.
Good girl.
Afterjulian removed Vera the French bulldog's uterus...
Good girl!
...she's made a complete recovery...
Come on baby.
...to the delight of her best pal, Jacob.
Like, on t'way home, when she got her stitches out,
she were really excited.
And, like, she was smiling.
Yeah. Good girl.
When I get home from school, I love seeing her.
Runs up to me and starts jumping up,
licking me and everything.
She means the world to me.
For Jacob's dad, Carl, it's also a huge relief.
Well, she is part of t'family.
Ancl kids treat them like their little brothers and sisters.
So, yeah, for kids to be upset, it makes me upset as well.
Julian's looked after her and we haven't lost her,
and that's the main thing. Good girl!
SHEEP BLEAT
Back in Wensleydale, the vets' walk is over.
ROWAN WHISTLES Come on.
And they've arrived in the village of Askrigg...
There's a very, very nice pub there. A famous pub there as well.
...to meet a friend who really needed to get out.
How pleasant.
JULIAN: A-ha. Hi, Julian.
The Wanderers return. At long last.
Good to see you. Have you had a nice walk?
How's things? Good. Yeah. The drinks are here.
How are you doing? All right. Yeah. Yeah.
Got you a drink. Everything's organised on the table.
So, have you had a good walk, folks?
I really felt bad that I couldn't join you cos I'd been injured.
That is some serious...
It's a bad kind of injury, but, um...
it's... yeah, it's on the mend.
I've been a good patient, although I won't tell the doctor
that I've been in the pub all afternoon.
LAUGHTER
While you've been in the pub enjoying yourself,
I've been introducing them to the delights of the Yorkshire Dales.
Ancl this pub you've chosen, I mean, you've chosen well, really,
cos this was The Drovers, wasn't it?
In the first All Creatures Great And Small.
I've been looking at all the photos on the wall
and it just brings back memories.
And that's what made me want to be a vet, really.
Was the whole village used as a filming location, then?
The village, was, yeah.
Ancl the inside shots were clone here as well. Yeah, yeah.
I don't think it's changed that much either, really.
Cos I remember coming over for a bike ride in 1981. Wow.
Ancl we stopped here for our dinners.
In 1981, I bought myself these boots I've got on.
They're Czechoslovakian work boots. They're brilliant.
They've still got some tread on them.
JULIAN: They're nearly 45 years old? Yeah.
The laces surely aren't original? They are.
Can you not afford a new pair of shoes?
Times are hard. LAUGHTER
Was there ever farms in this area
that you guys came to for farm visits? We never did.
But Alf Wight did in the '40s. In the practice, in the '40s,
they were taking the princely sum of £3 a clay,
doing farm and large animal work.
£3 a day, Pete, I think that's what you paid me when I first started.
LAUGHTER
These boys don't know they're born, do they?
They don't know they're born.
Thanks for inviting us, Peter. It's a pleasure.
And Julian. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks for coming. Cheers.
ALL CHEERS
MATT CHUCKLES