User Reviews

I get together with my father every Christmas to watch the "Merry Gentlemen" episode of All Creatures Great and Small. It transports us to a holiday and winter season in Yorkshire, England pre-WWII. The setting,characters and story line are beautifully depicted and acted. The production quality of sets, exteriors, natural lighting, and music are perfect. The actors are, as usual, all wonderful, and the characters memorable. The several plot threads are all interesting and well done. There is such warmth throughout this series, and this episode is one of the best. Christmas would not seem right without watching this episode.

This is one of the Christmas stores we use to "see in" the season, and it's just cozy with the old-fashioned atmosphere of Christmas: fresh mistletoe and holly and a tree, "big bulb" light strings, not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve, mince pies, Christmas cake. Several concurrent plot lines running: the vets try to save a young donkey with tetanus, Tricki-Woo the overfed Pekinese must be nursed back to health at Skeldale House after getting liver disease, and Tristan tries to figure out why the front room of Skeldale House is always locked. Little details make this a joy: kids singing carols at the door, James and Helen writing out Christmas cards, the guys cutting Christmas greens in the woods. Simply perfect!

This episode of All Creatures Great and Small has become a must-watch for my family during the holiday season because it gives us a chance to re-experience the taste of a Yorkshire Christmas, spiced with clever dialogue, excellent acting, and neatly interwoven subplots. The stories include those of a gypsy family, a beloved donkey, a near-tragedy for Mrs. Pumphrey and Triki Woo, and a mysterious skeleton in a locked room. The episode also involves a close call with tetanus for Tristan (and the donkey), a test of Siegfried's miraculous cake-judging ability, a sample of his success at gruffly dispensing wisdom to family members and clients, and finally his efforts to arrange for all a "real, old-fashioned, Yorkshire Christmas." In this neatly composed episode look for a surprise nativity tableau in a humble stable and stick around through the credits for a glimpse of Triki's visit from "Santa." All in all, it's a particularly well directed segment(thanks,Christopher Barry)of a superior TV series.