Who has played Helen in All Creatures Great and Small and where are they now as the Channel 5 reboot returns?

You might be wondering who has played Helen in All Creatures Great and Small over the years as the 2020 reboot’s latest season arrives.

It might not be quite cold enough yet for our best electric blankets but there’s still nothing quite as comforting as watching a TV classic on a chilly evening. Anyone who loved the rural setting and performances of The Larkins cast in The Darling Buds of May reboot might also be a fan of the Channel 5 reboot of All Creatures Great and Small. Based on the book series by Alf Wright, the original 1978 show was incredibly popular and the 2020 drama series is just about to return for season 4. One character who made a particular impression throughout all the adaptations is Helen Alderson, later Herriot - a farmer’s daughter and eventual wife of vet James Herriot.

Here we reveal all the actors who’ve played Helen in All Creatures Great and Small over the years and where they are now as fans anticipate season 4’s premiere…

Who has played Helen in All Creatures Great and Small and where are they now?

Carol Drinkwater

Many fans of Channel 5’s popular rural reboot won’t necessarily remember the original Helen Herriot who was played by British actor Carol Drinkwater. Carol played this role for the first three seasons of All Creatures Great and Small but chose to leave as Helen in All Creatures Great and Small in 1985 after appearing in over 40 episodes. When it comes to the reason for her sad departure, it seems that Carol had been starting to think about leaving around the time she met her husband Michel as she felt that there wasn’t enough scope to take Helen’s story further.

She previously told The Yorkshire Post in 2021, “I was already thinking about leaving because I felt that there was no more stretch for Helen. They wanted to stay very strictly to the books, because Alf was alive and at that stage he was quite adamant that they did. And I didn’t feel that there was anywhere else I could take Helen.”

Carol went on to reflect that at the time she’d felt that “ unless there was new material” the time had come for her to “move on” from playing Helen in All Creatures Great and Small. She added that she’d also been “getting lots and lots of offers” due to how “very successful” the drama was.

However, Carol also pragmatically expressed her belief that if she could turn back time she wouldn’t necessarily make the decision to leave the role again.

“Having said that, if I had my time over again, I wouldn’t have left it,” she said. “I feel I could have achieved all the things that I have achieved and continued with the show, but you know, that’s life.”

Her final episode as Helen in All Creatures Great and Small was the 1985 special and following this Carol went on to appear in movie A Clockwork Orange, as well as TV shows Casualty, Peak Practice and Captain James Cook.

Lynda Bellingham

The next actor to play Helen in All Creatures Great and Small was the late Lynda Bellingham OBE who took over as the character from season 4 until the original 1978 show ended with season 7. For many people, it’s likely that Lynda was the actor most strongly associated with Helen given her tenure in the drama. She was also well-known for her roles in everything from Doctor Who and Second Thoughts, to the stage production of Calendar Girls and for playing the “Oxo Mum” in the iconic 1980s TV adverts.

Lynda was also a panellist on ITV’s Loose Women and competed on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2009. Fans were left devastated when it was announced that Lynda Bellingham had very sadly passed away in October 2014 after being diagnosed with cancer in 2013.

During her time as Helen on All Things Great and Small, the character was bed-ridden for a time as a way of covering up Lynda’s real-life pregnancy. According to IMDB, whilst the storyline in the show was that Helen had a slipped disc in her back, Lynda had a hole cut in the mattress for her to sit in to help disguise her pregnancy and she gave birth to her second son Robbie earlier in 1988, five months before season 5 aired.

Rachel Shenton

The current actor playing Helen in All Creatures Great and Small is Rachel Shenton, who Oscar lovers will remember for her amazing win for the powerful short film, The Silent Child, in 2018 which she starred in as well as writing and producing it. She has played Helen in the Channel 5 reboot of the 1978 drama since it first landed in 2020. According to Rachel herself she hadn’t initially watched the original show, but was aware of how much of an impact it had as her mum had been a fan.

“I was aware of the series. It was before my time, so I'd never seen it, but I knew it was a success,” she told Town&Country. “My mum watched it and some of my family, so there's always that idea of ‘Oh, goodness, these are quite big boots to fill’.”

She went on to share that she’d read one of the All Creatures Great and Small books “years ago” and that she soon found herself re-reading them and being totally swept away by them

Rachel said, “I'd read one of the books out of order, years ago, so I kind of knew about the world, but obviously I re-read the books in order this time when this part came up and just fell in love with the world that Alf Wight created. But I think there's always pressure [stepping into the part of Helen in the reboot]. There's absolutely pressure because it was so loved.”

Knowing that Helen in All Creatures Great and Small was somewhat inspired by author Alf’s wife Joan, Rachel revealed that she had the privilege of meeting the couple’s children and doing more research.

“We also had the privilege of meeting Rosie and Jim Wight, who were Alf Wight's children. Wight’s pseudonym was James Herriot. And in meeting the children, actually hearing about them mum from their perspective just gave us a real peek behind the curtain, because in the book, we learn about my character through James,” Rachel said.

She went on to reveal that they learnt that Helen was based on “how he feels about” Joan “rather than what she’s like as a woman in her own right, really”. Rachel also mentioned the James Herriot Museum in Yorkshire and how she learnt that Joan was “actually one of the first women in her village to wear trousers”.

“I thought that was a really telling bit of information, so I really took that on. And I think it was because she was through and through a practical woman. And now, I've tried to get on those tractors in the middle of winter in Yorkshire and it would be really hard to do in a dress, so of course she's wearing trousers,” she declared.

Lisa Harrow

Carol, Lynda and Rachel are the only three actors who have played Helen in All Creatures Great and Small shows over the years, but there was also a 1975 movie also based on Alf Wright’s book series. It starred Lisa Harrow as Helen alongside Anthony Hopkins as Siegfried Farnon and Simon Ward as James Herriot.

The movie is understood to have been based on the first two novels and a sequel called It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet was released a year later, starring the same three main cast members and based on the next two novels.

Born in New Zealand, Lisa went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has also appeared in the likes of Inspector Morse, Omen III: The Final Conflict and, more recently, The Brokenwood Mysteries.

All Creatures Great and Small season 4 airs on Channel 5 on 5th October at 9pm and the 1978 series is available to watch via ITVX.