The Scottish accent is the only aspect that's closer. Much of the rest is further away or just made up.

James' 'Scottish' accent surfaces occasionally but is too weak to be a real Glaswegian IMHO. Maybe the makers felt a genuine one might be incomprehensible :-)

IIRC in the books James Herriot was an Aberdonian, a disguise along with the pseudonym to avoid complications with the then policy of the RCVS against self promotion/advertising.

All Creatures Grunt and Snarl. It is a modern take on the story, no doubt. They have given Mrs Hall a fuller character and Helen is a bit more self assured and outgoing. However the programme does not suffer for that, in fact the more modern responses from the characters is quite in keeping with a remake. There is not too much deviation and I and SWMBO are enjoying the new series very much. You can't please all the people all the time..........

The original practice is in Thirsk and Herriot was called Alf White. My father was from Paisley and although having a brogue he was perfectly understandable as is young Herriot. The premises are now some sort of museum piece I think. We lived about 20 minutes away from Thirsk and it bears no relation to Darrowby. The village they use for that is way up in the Dales past Wensleydale. A playing colleague from our rugby club was a trainee vet with Alf White and he was a charming chap by all accounts. The same was never said about Siegfried though. A bit prickly I think.

Cheers Concrete

The original BBC series is being shown on BBC4 on Thursday evenings. Still better than C5's version, no rose tinted spectacles here.