All Creatures Great and Small, episode 4, review: Diana Rigg bids farewell
Rather poignantly, this was the last episode of All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5) to feature Dame Diana Rigg as the wealthy widow Mrs Pumphrey. Ever the consummate professional, the veteran actress surely wouldn’t mind me saying that she was somewhat upstaged by her canine co-star.
In the fourth episode of the veterinary romp’s hit revival, titled "A Tricki Case”, our hero, James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph), was alarmed to receive a call from "Mrs P”, who feared her darling dog Tricki Woo was dying. “Don’t tell me it’s the Spanish flu!” she wailed melodramatically. Cue a rollicking instalment in which the pampered long-haired Pekingese (played by the excellently named Derek) took centre stage.
When James examined the over-indulged pooch, it became clear that Mrs Pumphrey hadn’t been following the diet James prescribed. The dangerously overweight Tricki, who was wheezing on his velvet cushion, had been feasting on beef wellington and calf’s foot jelly, plus a bowl of Horlicks at night to “help get him to sleep”.
It was time for drastic action. “Uncle Herriot” took Tricki back to Skeldale House for a period of rehabilitation and close observation. “He’s never been away from home before,” fussed Mrs Pumphrey. She packed the caviar-loving mutt “a few essentials” for his stay, including a dog-sized chaise longue and a hamper of gourmet goodies.
Except the observation wasn’t quite close enough. Tricki soon went AWOL and his condition deteriorated. When he got his snout into the hamper and scoffed a boxful of chocolate liqueurs, the panicking vets had to pump his stomach.
Other subplots bubbled along, but this was the Mrs P and Tricki Woo show - a perfectly matched pair of loveable eccentrics, both having a whale of a time. With his rolling gait and flowing fur, Tricki was a screen natural, just like his devoted owner.
Eventually, they were reunited. “My boofums is home!” cried Mrs Pumphrey delightedly, before noting: “He feels like a sack of spanners! He must be starving.” She was last seen feeding him some meaty titbits, much to Siegfried’s chagrin.
This was a neat and deeply nerdy nod to Rigg’s days playing Emma Peel in The Avengers. Mrs Peel once helped John Steed (Patrick Macnee) open his Christmas cards and enquired, with deliciously arched eyebrow: “And who is ‘Boofums’?”
Elsewhere, Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse from The Durrells, a period series with a similarly giddy tone) prepared to return to his veterinary studies in Edinburgh - except hard-to-please Siegfried (Samuel West) had other plans for his errant “little brother”.
In the bubbling romantic subplot, James grew closer to Helen Alderson (Rachel Shenton) when he helped encourage her prize bull to sow his wild oats. Helen repaid him with some home baking that certainly wouldn’t earn a Paul Hollywood handshake.
There was some bittersweet business with a vomiting Alsatian called Clancy. Housekeeper Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley, bringing depth to an unshowy role) continued to fret about her missing son. Comic relief came from knockabout farce involving hidden lovers and ringing telephones. We even had time for a rousing Gilbert and Sullivan singalong.
This wasn’t Rigg’s last ever screen role. She still has appearances to come in BBC drama Black Narcissus and Edgar Wright’s film Last Night in Soho. Yet airing just 12 days after her death, it somehow seemed a fitting send-off: a scene-stealing role, set in her native Yorkshire, full of wicked wit and with a knowing wink to her illustrious past. As Dame Diana was fond of saying: “Bye-sy bye.”
