I want to tell you about a particular moment on a recent All Creatures tour, because it captures something about what these days are actually like that the marketing language doesn't quite reach.
We were standing outside the church where James and Helen married. Seven guests, all of whom had watched the series, most of whom had watched it more than once. Our expert storyteller played the relevant scene on the screen — the arrival, the moment inside, the aftermath — and then turned it off. And for about thirty seconds nobody said anything.
The church was exactly as it appears on screen. The location — tucked into the Dales as though it grew there, surrounded by the limestone and fell landscape that defines this part of the world — was exactly right. The gap between the thing you had watched and the real place it was filmed in had closed completely.
Then someone said: I didn't expect to feel like this.
We leave Windermere at nine. The drive into the Dales takes a little over an hour, and our storyteller uses it well — the story of James Herriot (the real vet, the real books, the real place), the history of the series, the decisions the production team made in choosing the Channel 5 locations. By the time we arrive in the Dales, you are not starting from cold.
Grassington is the first proper stop. The square, the lanes, the filming locations that you recognise from scene after scene. Your storyteller plays the relevant clips — here is the scene that was filmed in this doorway, here is the lane where this moment happened — and the recognition is immediate. Most guests start pointing before the clips have finished.
Lunch is at the pub used for interior filming. I will not tell you which pub it is here — partly because the filming locations are something the production team keep relatively quiet, and partly because the discovery of being there, of ordering at the actual bar, is part of the experience.
What I will tell you is that the first response of most guests on walking in is silence followed by laughter. The room is exactly right. The bar is exactly as it appeared on screen. Someone usually says: This is surreal. It isn't, really — it's just a pub that was chosen because it was exactly right, and it still is.
Two churches, two very different settings, two scenes from the series that most fans hold particularly in mind. The contrast between them — one substantial and formal, one small and ancient and almost secret in the Dales — is something the series earns over several series and which is completely satisfying when you understand it in the landscape.
The storyteller has things to say about the filming choices at each one. You will watch both episodes differently afterwards.
The final stop of the day, in Hawes, is the Wensleydale Creamery — not strictly an All Creatures location, but an essential piece of the Dales story and a fitting end to the day. Nine hundred years of cheese-making in this valley. A proper tasting. Something to take home that connects you to the landscape you have spent the day in.
Most guests buy cheese. Most guests are surprised how good it is. It tastes better when you know where you are.
The All Creatures Great & Small tour departs from Windermere at 9am. £169 per person. Maximum seven guests.