This week on All Creatures Great and Small, the residents of Skeldale House have to reckon with changes in their lives in various ways. James receives his enlistment date from the RAF, and it’s well before Helen’s due date. Mrs. Hall questions the future of her relationship with Gerald. Siegfried has to adjust to only having Carmody for pet and farm calls. Let’s discuss how the characters handle these changes.

Anyone else still not ok after the bait and switch of “I love you and also I’m going to America for a year!”? Well, while we’re feeling stressed out, our pal Victoria Mars is fine. Totally fine! Unbothered, actually!

This week on All Creatures Great And Small, Carmody is still adjusting to life as a country vet. He hasn’t fully developed an instinct for diagnosing or learned how to speak to the clients in a way that they can understand. Meanwhile, Helen is struggling with how her pregnancy affects her daily routines. Brucellosis threatening the livelihood of a farming family and an itchy tortoise put Carmody’s social skills to the test. Let’s find out what happens.

So. Last week, we took a journey back in time to see how our pals first met, and got confirmation that Duke Silver is alive and somewhat well. THIS week finds our Scottish friend trapped at Victoria Mars’ place and getting smothered by Ivy.

This week on All Creatures Great And Small, James and Siegfried realize that it’s very important to have an extra vet. James finds a vet student who needs to gain hands-on experience to come to Skeldale as his assistant. Mrs. Pumphrey’s foster dog and Tom Chapman’s horse will force the student to remember what he learned from the textbooks. Will he pass the test? Let’s find out.

Remember how last week our pals were just about to go on a DATE and then there was a shootout during a raid and Duke Silver got possibly fatally injured? Unfortunately, reader, that wasn’t a fever dream: it really happened. This week, we cut to Victoria Mars blasting into Duke Silver’s sickroom with the manic energy that one gets when someone important is very sick.

This week on All Creatures Great & Small, the remaining members of Skeldale House are still coping with Tristan’s absence. Helen’s efforts last season to assist Siegfried with the paperwork have not improved either the organization or the finances of the practice. There’s also the issue of more farm and clinic calls than available vets. Siegfried decides to try something to solve the problem, but will it work? Let’s dig a bit deeper and find out.

Reader, I hope you’re enjoying being back in Victorian London with our detective pals as much as I am. I regret to inform you, however, that at least one person is having a terrible time, and that person is Barney the Morgue Bureaucrat. Not only is his walk to work getting interrupted by a bunch of children, but he’s also being chased down the street by Victoria Mars, who’s asking for background information on one of his corpses. A protocol breach? And an annoyance? Sounds like any other episode, except this time, Victoria Mars tries to play the Ivy card.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is pleased to present a preview screening and discussion of our upcoming film, Nazi Town, USA. The event will feature an extended clip from the film and a panel discussion with film participants.

Featured guests include:

Peter Yost: Writer, producer and director of Nazi Town, USA.

Edna Alburquerque: Producer of Nazi Town, USA.

Beverly Gage: Professor of history at Yale University and the author of G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

The discussion will be moderated by Cameo George, executive producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

About the film: In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Pro-American Rally.” Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the “Jewish controlled media” and called for a return to a racially “pure” America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. NAZI TOWN, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery, melding the images of Americana with a virulent anti-semitic ideology.

From filmmakers Peter Yost and Edna Alburquerque and executive produced by Cameo George, NAZI TOWN, USA raises thorny issues — from questions of free speech to declarations of “America First” — that we continue to wrestle with today

Nazi Town, USA premieres on Tuesday, January 23rd at 9/8c on PBS.


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Major funding for American Experience provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Funding for Nazi Town, USA provided by members of The Better Angels Society including The Fullerton Family Charitable Fund. Additional funding for American Experience provided by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, The American Experience Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers. American Experience is produced for PBS by GBH Boston.


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Disclaimer: Likenesses shown on promotional materials for this event are composites made from stock photos of models.

The All Creatures Great And Small Season 4 premiere reminds viewers that the shadow of World War II is now fully woven into the lives of the residents of Yorkshire. At Skeldale House, Tristan is sorely missed as there are plenty of farmers and pet owners looking for veterinary care. While the season premiere establishes that the series has not forgotten its roots in comforting television, the stakes for the health of the animals have never been higher. Let’s discuss how the characters are adjusting to their new reality.