The World of All Creatures Great and Small: Welcome to Skeldale House

by James Steen

This was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this TV program.  I liked it a lot!  The chapter titles include: 

• Beginnings; Setting the Scene
• The Cast
• The Creatures, Great and Small, and 
• Making It and Faking It. 

Amongst those chapters and topics were the actors’ thoughts about the show and their parts in it; the “created” animals; creating the sets; the music; etc.  It was interesting to learn that each character has a theme song and the composer explained why she chose certain instruments and/or tunes.  There were several hundred people who worked to bring about this production. 

From Jill Clark, the animal trainer:
“No matter how difficult the animal might seem, you’ll always get something out of it.  And you can always work around them as long as you know their temperament and basic behavior.  It’s a matter of thinking, what is their natural behaviour.”

I really enjoyed this book.

nm