“All Creatures Great and Small” Season 1, Episode 5 – “All’s Fair”
“All Creatures Great and Small” could have stayed inside Skeldale House for six episodes (plus a Christmas special) and still been one of the year’s most delightful surprises. This chapter in particular, though, takes all the magic of James (Nicholas Ralph), Siegfried (Samuel West), Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley), and Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) and sprinkles it out into the town of Darrowby. With the village fair taking center stage, it’s a chance for the show to branch out even further in displaying the many different ways this group cares for each other. All the stubborn pride, surreptitious flirting, unspoken personal history, and everyday integrity that feeds the show’s greatest moments are all on display here, wrapped in a package with the same sincere affection that makes the rest of the season an absolute treat. (Oh, and of course, this episode also has Leopold the ferret.) – Steve Greene