Series 7 of All Creatures Great and Small airs weekly on 5 and Series 1 – 6 can be streamed now.
Where do we find Siegfried at the start of Series 7?
I think he’s in quite a good place. He’s got a new girlfriend and he’s enjoying his work. There’s a challenge that arrives fairly early on, which is the presence of a new vet in town. My father would have called it ‘old stag and young stag’. When he turns up, he looks annoyingly like me, but younger and better. He’s like a younger, better version of Siegfried. But I think he’s in quite a good place.
He’s rediscovered a bit of his pep, his joie de vivre, and a beautiful, intelligent, stylish, funny woman likes him. I think there’s a prospect of happiness on the horizon. It’s one of the happier starts to a series I’ve had.
Tristan has very much earned his place at Skeldale now. Does Siegfried have a new level of respect for him, both professionally and personally?
Absolutely. The professional respect is made clear in this series, and I think Siegfried’s own sense of Tristan has stopped him really thinking of him in that way before. Eventually the evidence is clear that he’s turned into a very good vet. He’s been trusted with his official responsibilities and, veterinary wise, he’s had a good war. There is a moment of big change between them, and it’s overdue.
I think he’s finally in a place where he can think, if he really loves his brother, he has to let him make his own mistakes. It’s taken him quite a long time to get there, but I do think he’s there now. I have to make a few of my own as well, so it would be churlish of me to deny him the opportunity to learn from his mistakes. I do think there’s a big change in our relationship now. There’s a lot of blood under the bridge.
The practice is embracing new advances in veterinary medicine. How does Siegfried feel about keeping up with the changing times?
Siegfried likes to think of himself as more embracing of new technologies and new treatments than he actually is. But it is an exciting time, principally with the introduction of antibiotics. The X rays are getting better and all sorts of operations that you wouldn’t even have attempted before are being attempted. Unfortunately, they’re not really being attempted by him, so he doesn’t like that.
The idea that there’s this young upstart in town who has written papers on certain things and is a small animal vet, which is the new fashionable thing, is a thorn in Siegfried’s side. He goes into the conversation with Granville expecting to hate him, absolutely with daggers drawn. When he turns out to be quite a decent chap, that’s a surprise. Then he turns out to be quite relaxed, which Siegfried really isn’t.
I think Granville’s presence is a thorn in his side for most of the series, but when Granville actually needs his help, it puts him back into a place of honest appreciation of where he is.
What kind of impact does Granville Bennett have on Skeldale?
He really messes them up, actually. Suddenly Siegfried is ordering new treatments which they don’t necessarily need and almost certainly can’t afford. He starts working everyone all the time, throws open the practice to all comers and gets rid of the idea of appointments, all because Siegfried thinks he’s falling behind him.
He turns out to be quite relaxed about the whole thing and, on his day off, he goes swimming. In Siegfried’s mind, this alpha male vet who is quietly brilliant and probably never has days off and is impossible to compete with. The Granville Bennett of Siegfried’s imagination is much bigger, more dangerous and very different from the one he actually gets to know.
Plus, Caolan is delightful. He’s a brilliant addition to the family and playing with him is really fun.
Dorothy made quite an impression in last year’s Christmas Special. What can you tell us about where things stand between her and Siegfried this series?
I think we’re in the honeymoon period. We’re dating, we’re walking out and it’s lovely. We don’t have exactly similar tastes, but we’re willing to indulge one another. Even when she dismisses Gilbert and Sullivan, I’m going, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’ I think it’s all great until I start taking her for granted.
I don’t think that’s a function of Siegfried’s thoughtlessness, and it’s certainly not a function of his malice. I think something subconscious makes itself felt in his behaviour towards Dorothy, which brings on a really honest appraisal of what’s going on.
As ever, playing with Maimie was a real pleasure. It seems extraordinary that she was away for five years, from Series 1 to Series 6. It was like she’d hardly been away. She’s extraordinarily good, I loved working with her and we had some very good scenes together. At the beginning, as I said, an attractive, intelligent, stylish, funny woman is looking at me with great regard and possibly love. Who wouldn’t be blooming under that sort of regard?
Mrs Hall has always been Siegfried’s confidante and steadying influence. How does their relationship evolve in Series 7?
I think ‘evolve’ is the right word. I’m not sure if it necessarily progresses, but it does evolve. Principally, she’s a check on his more selfish behaviour. As I’ve said before, Siegfried is very often ahead of people in the way he thinks. His own mind will race ahead of the situation and react as if everybody else is absolutely up to speed, and sometimes they’re not. He’s left them all behind and confused. But he may be ahead in his thoughts, while he’s almost always behind in his emotions. He very rarely knows what he feels about things and sometimes discovers it weeks, and series, after the audience, which is interesting and a pleasure to play.
In this case, Mrs Hall is Dorothy’s dear friend and she introduced us, so she wants the relationship to work for her own reasons. When I’m neglectful of Dorothy, she’s annoyed, as she would be and as she should be. That puts a strain on our relationship, but it should. It leaves me disappointing her, which I don’t like, obviously.
Was there an animal that was particularly memorable to film this year?
I get to work with horses again this series. I have never had another series like Series 3, where I got to ride and talk to horses as much, but Siegfried is a bit of a horse whisperer. I really love talking to horses. I think they’re my favourite animals that we work with. For reasons that will have to remain secret until you see that episode, Siegfried has a very emotional and close relationship with a horse. Walking with the horse conjures my true voice out of me eventually, and that becomes really important. I remember that with a great deal of pleasure.
Looking back over seven series, what has been the most rewarding part of playing Siegfried?
I think the first thing is, and will always be, the ensemble. I think we’re a great deal bigger than the sum of our parts as five principal actors. We’ve always clicked and there hasn’t been a cross word in seven years. I’m not kidding, there hasn’t been one. I think it’s amazing to be part of something that is bigger than you. It’s the feeling that I’m sort of addicted to acting.
Speaking personally as Siegfried, I’ve never played a part for this long. I’ve never played a part for more than a year in the theatre. I think you always expect that something is going to come along which completely derails your idea of the character, and it hasn’t. I think that’s mostly because there’s a lot of homework to be done reading the books.
You’re based on a real person, not entirely and deliberately not with 100 per cent accuracy, but there are biographical details you can take, people who knew him and lots of other material. But there are also a great deal of pages not filled in. Once we realised that the backstory with Evelyn and the war, not having children, and Tristan all made sense, then I knew we were in a life that did make sense.
Four months in the Dales with people you love, on great and greatly loved stories, with a crew who hardly ever change, playing somebody who’s complex and real and funny and bloody annoying. What’s not to like?