Behind the Scenes of All Creatures Great and Small Donna Metcalfe and Mark Roodhouse
Event details
How have the creators of Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small reimagined James Herriot’s Yorkshire Dales characters for 21st century audiences? Taking us into the writers’ room and onto set, the hit show’s script executive Donna Metcalfe reflects on the experience of readapting the books.
Based loosely on his experiences as a Dales vet from the 1930s to 1950s, the gently comic Herriot books pose unique opportunities and challenges for would-be adapters. For example, what do historical accuracy and authenticity mean when adapting semi-autobiographical books for the screen? And what licence is there to introduce new characters and storylines?
Donna discusses these issues and many others as she takes you behind the screen in conversation with the series’ historical consultant Mark Roodhouse of the University of York.
Image credit: Channel 5/Playground, photographer Jay Brooks
About the speakers
Donna Metcalfe joined All Creatures in 2023 after working in development for Sky Studios where she nurtured new writers and worked on a slate of drama projects. She has also worked as Script Producer and Script Editor on ITV’s Emmerdale, a script editor on ITV’s Cold Feet and CBBC’s adaption of Jill Murphy’s Worst Witch. Donna’s other passion is Musical Theatre and she spends any spare time running a Fringe Musical Theatre company in Manchester and working as a freelance Musical Theatre Dramaturg.
Dr Mark Roodhouse of the University of York’s Department of History, who grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, has worked on All Creatures since 2021, advising on life in wartime and postwar Britain.
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