It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet

Tradition affirms that one thing that shouldnt happen to an actor is to share the stage or screen with a child or an animal. Yet such was the appeal of James Herriot's autobiographical books about life as a country vet that a host of talented actors proved eager to appear with an entire Noah's Ark of animals populating the various film and television adaptations. In It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet (1976), set in the immediately pre-war period, the dedicated, domineering Siegfried Farnon is played by Colin Blakely, John Alderton as the young James Herriot, who we first meet bowling along the practice's battered old motor-car on an errand of mercy for old Mrs. Tompkin's budgerigar. The bird drops deader than Monty Python's parrot before he can properly open its cage, but James promptly resolves the situation by the substitution of a new bird. Nothing much more Earth-shattering, in fact, happens throughout most of the film, though fortunately he finds hislatter encounters with the districts dogs, cats, goats, goldfish and larger domesticated animals prove less disastrous. The film also charts young Herriot's relations with the local human fauna, including his difficult senior partner, with the pretty and pregnant Mrs. Herriot (Lisa Harrow) and the rather ecentric locals, such as the five-year old whose opinion of farming is that 'it's a bit of a bugger' , and the friendly neighbour with whom he gets enormously, magnificently drunk on a variety of 'harmless' rhuburb, turnip and other home-made wines. Beautifully photographed by Arthur Ibbetson, this is a warm, gentle, and throughly British depiction of the life of a veterinary surgeon and his community. The atmosphere of the 'Thirties is splendidly recreated, and when right at the end we hear the voice of Neville Chamberlain, we appreciate that he is also announcing the end of an era.