All Creatures Great and Small (film)

This article is about the 1975 film. For the franchise, see All Creatures Great and Small (franchise).

All Creatures Great and Small
Original British 1975 quad format poster
Directed byClaude Whatham
Screenplay byHugh Whitemore
Based onIf Only They Could Talk & It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet
by James Herriot
Produced byDavid Susskind
Duane Bogie
executive
Ronald Gilbert
StarringSimon Ward
Anthony Hopkins
Brian Stirner
Lisa Harrow
CinematographyPeter Suschitzky
Edited byRalph Sheldon
Music byWilfred Josephs
Production
companies
Venedon Limited
EMI Films
Talent Associates
Distributed byEMI Film Distributors Limited
Release date
  • 9 May 1975 (1975-05-09) (UK[1])
Running time
87 minutes (US version)
120 mins (theatrical version)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million[2] or $1 million[3]

All Creatures Great and Small is a 1975 British film (copyrighted in 1974), directed by Claude Whatham and starring Simon Ward and Anthony Hopkins as Yorkshire vets James Herriot and Siegfried Farnon.[4] It is based on the first novels by James Herriot (the pen name of veterinary surgeon Alf Wight): If Only They Could Talk (1970) and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1972).

The film was given the same title as the 1972 US compilation volume of these two novels. It is the first of a series of films and television series based on Herriot's work. A sequel was released in 1976, somewhat confusingly titled It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, although it actually covers the two following novels, Let Sleeping Vets Lie and Vet in Harness.

  1. ^ The Times, 9 May 1975, page 13: Film reviews by David Robinson - found via The Times Digital Archive 2014-01-03
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference los was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ 'All Creatures': it's the saga of a Yorkshire vet Smith, Cecil. Los Angeles Times 2 Feb 1975: o2.
  4. ^ "All Creatures Great and Small". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 20 August 2024.