“This is that sort of show — old-fashioned and often as soft as a marshmallow toasted over the fire, but also a vision of England at its humane best. No matter that the Yorkshire Dales looked uncharacteristically blue-skied for the bleak midwinter, this was a perfectly lovely programme to sip sherry to while noting the distinct feeling of having your cockles warmed.” “There’s Christmas, and then there’s Christmas in Skeldale, the Yorkshire idyll that is home to vet James Herriot and the squabbling Farnon brothers. The festive special of All Creatures Great And Small turned the Christmas dial up to maximum and shovelled on bucketloads of schmaltz. They should have called this It Shouldn’t Happen To Santa.”