HeyNonny Mouse

The show is a fake, and not very good to boot. The oldest trick in showbiz is to take a recognizable brand to draw an audience in, and then give them something almost unrelated that bares only the most superficial resemblance. That's what has happened here. Every major character is fundamentally different from their counterpart in the books (apart from Mrs. Pumphrey, the least significant). Even the type of story we get is different. Herriot's books are a rambling series of amusing and touching anecdotes about his work as a vet, and the eccentric characters he met along the way. But this show isn't interested in his vet work or in the ordinary folk he meets. Instead, it's a soap-opera, laden with story arcs, that is tightly focused on the developing personal lives of the main characters. Anyone who likes this show and tries the books because of it is going to be enormously disappointed. In the books, Herriot was navigating an alien world, but in this series, there is little sense that this is not our culture. Quaint rules for class, gender, general manners and "decency" are ignored. For instance, everyone talks openly about everyone else's personal life. The worst offenders are Helen and Mrs Hall. Helen is sexually uninhibited and mean-spirited to the point of harassing James. There's no sense that she submits to her father. Mrs. Hall openly judges everyone and tells them how to live, including her employers. Worse yet, she's perfectly wise. I have to stop. You get the idea. Go and watch the old show, or better yet, read the brilliant books, not this cynical rip-off.