All Creatures Great and Small (TV Series) Edward (2022) User Reviews

Serious and touching

[elod-14387 · 8/10 · 7 April 2023]

I thought this was a lovely episode. The epi's don't have to strive to charm the daylights out of us every single time. There are a lot of spoiler reviews on here, which I recommend you not read before watching.

The script was well written and involved facing and coming to terms by several characters with how something went in their past. It was well acted, including by a child actor (not in regular cast). The production values were excellent.

I enjoyed seeing Mrs. Hall out of the setting of the Darrowby house and her typical role. My critiques are (1) we don't get info about what year this is and what specific events were going on in the country; this was something that I felt the original ACGS writers did better. (2) Writer tried to cover too many people in subplots; I felt one or two could possibly have been cut.

Beautiful photography, but what year is it exactly?

[deanlane · 8/10 · 30 December 2022]

This episode is quite gorgeous to behold, but if I hadn't seen previous episodes, I wouldn't have much idea that this is supposed to be the summer of 1939. Perhaps that's the point: people know that the storm clouds are gathering, but they don't let that worry them because there's nothing they can do about it. So why the emphasis on copious cups of tea being offered from a table on the station platform? It's not the evacuation of Dunkirk yet, nor even the evacuation of children out of the big cities.

But one character does have to worry: Edward. He's in the Royal Navy and he's returning to his ship. He has more idea than most people of what might be in store for him, though he struggles to express it to his mother.

The tea ladies and the sailor are linked at the end, when the train departs. Mrs Hall can't hear what her son is trying to tell her above the noise of the train. But the deaf lady can read his lips (at a surprisingly long distance) and relays his message to his mother.

The sub-plot with the "work experience boy" was interesting but again it lacked a sense of time and place. Did we talk about "work experience" back then? It sounds very modern to my ear. And surely a schoolboy would have addressed his elders more formally.

But the scenes with the steam trains were a joy to behold; lots of them chugging back and forth. Yes, they were a bit too shiny and clean, but then this is Herriot Country, where everything looks lovely, even a cow's backside. And the production team were able to use the genuine Keighley station, where two platforms have been preserved by the Worth Valley Railway.

(Carefully screened by another train were two more platforms for the Leeds - Carlisle line. That's served by diesel and electric trains with sliding doors. Edward's train to Portsmouth left from quite the wrong platform, heading for Haworth - and the end of the branch line at Oxenhope.)

Very Real

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 4 February 2024]

First of all, there was no effort to sugar coat the meeting of mother and son. There was a time that in order to be true to an employer, she turned her son in for theft and he was sent to reform school. He has carried his anger around ever since, denying her access to any correspondence. Now, as he heads off for war, he feels she should know that and see him again. The meeting is not pretty. But there is a sort of resolution. In another plot Helen's sister has dropped out of school to be a full-time farmer with her dad. She is very competent but is having doubts; plus she feels judged by Helen. In a third revealing subplot, a young man comes for a job experience and Siegfried works with him on a dog that has been kicked by a cow. He is kind to the boy and encouraging, and Tristan is hurt that he did not receive that treatment. There are explanations but they all get down to being human. Well done, very moving episode with no easy answers.

A piece of art

[aryacunam · 10/10 · 21 October 2022]

We watched the episode as a family as always, all Creatures...it's an unmissable family series, I consider this episode one of the best, for us a real piece of art where Charity (love) is beautifully expressed in each scene, take, gesture and lyrics, thank you for this virtuous gift, this is what television entertainment should be.

Each character has grown in charity without losing their personality, the stories are entertaining, the photography and beautiful music, a true reflection of the innocence and good intentions of their creators, continue on this good path, God willing it will be a classic for decades and for last congratulations to the actors we are their number 1 fans. Greetings.

Written by Karim Khan and guest starring Lara Steward

[safenoe · 10/10 · 11 February 2024]

Edward is a bold, game changing episode of the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, and it's incredibly moving without a doubt. Here Mrs Hall (a moving and emotional performance by Anna Madeley) is the center of the main plotline here, with her travelling to meet her son Edward (played by Conor Deane) before he heads off on the HMS Repulse. There's a lot of backstory fleshed out between mother and son, and the biscuit tin was a motif that made me want to shed a tear or two as the train departed. Lara Steward as Penny is the MVP of this episode, and hopefully she can make more appearances in this fine series.

Lacks either the drama or humor of most episodes

[VetteRanger · 6/10 · 18 January 2023]

These characters have all become old friends to us, both from the original series and this new one. New, we call it, though it's in the 3rd season. :-)

The largest focus of this show is the long pined for arrival of Mrs. Hall's son. For two Christmas specials in a row, she's been sad that he hates her for not protecting him from being a thief.

Here, he does come to see her before going off to war, and the writers used an odd contrivance of a deaf woman reading the son's lips as the train carried him away, as he leaned out a window, to tell Mrs. Hall his parting words. I won't include them as a spoiler. ;-)

Wow, did Helen's younger sister sprout up! In this episode she's an inch taller than Helen, but a story about a sheep with an infected hoof didn't quite rise to the level we normally get with veterinary problems, nor did the dog with a displaced hip.

The other highlight of the show was a quite revealing admission by Siegfried to Tristan about Siegfried's marriage and regrets of how he "raised" Tristan. It's moving.

In all, the episode was a visit with old friends more than a riveting experience, but we're okay with that.

Not that great

[xmasdaybaby1966 · 6/10 · 18 October 2022]

This episode is a bit different concentrating on Mrs Hall's relationship with her son, a work experience boy at the surgery and, for some reason, the scenes featuring James and Helen were all timed on location.

The great thing about the first series was that the show didn't pander to the PC brigade but here we have a deaf woman and mute woman (whom just happens to be an ethnic minority too - in a rural Market town in the 1930s).

The magic really has gone this series. Tricki woo, whom is quite the scene stealer, isn't in this episode but his owner Mrs. Pumphrey has been 1uite noticeable by her absence which is quite major seeing as Patricia Hodge is the second person to play the character.

Was she not available for this series, has she been written out or is it her posh house which is not available?

As usual, there are problems and issues but everything turns out fine.

I do hope the standard will keep up because a fourth series has already been commissioned.

Maybe the show started off so well that the slightest drop in standards takes the quality away.

Why

[evans-15475 · 5/10 · 23 October 2022]

I was all for mrs Hall roll being expanded but this was a step to far do I really care that much about her back story no what was the point of the wait and deaf person pure pointless filler,will we ever hear from her son again before he's seriously wounded in the second world war I've a feeling the answer is no .the farnon and Tristan relationship seems to have lost its warmth and the whole third series seems to haave lost its way..tooo many downer plots the relationship between James Herriot and Helen Alderson somehow seems to have lost it magic only took me twenty five minutes to fast forward this.