If you are anything like me, you’ve spent the past few weeks pacing nervously, eager to return to Darrowby to reunite with your family after what feels like an endless time apart. 

But then, when you finally arrive in the Yorkshire Dales, it isn’t Mrs. Hall’s bright smile and a welcoming cup of tea that greet you, but clutter, empty bottles, half-eaten apples, and animals one would expect to find in a stable rather than Skeldale’s sitting room.

Since the season 5 Christmas special, three years have passed, and in that time Skeldale has changed almost beyond recognition. Where back in December 1941 the whole family had gathered to celebrate Christmas, Edward’s survival, and Jimmy Herriot’s first birthday, there is now only a mucky, neglected house, empty of people and stripped of warmth.

The state of Skeldale reflects Siegfried’s own. He is in an entirely dreadful mood: erratic, irritable, and hungover more often than not. He appears not just angry but utterly lost. Change has always been hard for Siegfried to face. Yet, for the past decade, he has managed to cope whenever it arrived. This time, however, is different: the person who stood by his side and kept him on track and served as his sounding board – his partner in crime and wit – is gone.

With a heavy heart, Mrs. Hall left Skeldale quite some time ago to care for her injured son Edward. She nursed him back to health and somehow ended up staying with him longer than she had initially intended, supporting him as he fell in love, married, and welcomed a daughter.

It’s not entirely clear whether Mrs. Hall travelled back and forth at first, but in the season premiere, it seems she has been absent from Skeldale for months. So, it is a rather big relief for the audience when James and Tristan appear at her doorstep and beg her to return to the Dales. In her absence, Siegfried has been driving everyone bonkers, letting the house and surgery fall into disarray, drinking too much, and behaving unpredictably. 

Tristan sums it up perfectly: “The old goat has lost his marbles. He’s gone totally berserk. The man is a menace.”

When asked to return Mrs. Hall hesitates, unsure whether Siegfried even wants her back, a hint that their parting had likely left things unsettled. Still, she decides to return to Darrowby for a few days to sort out the chaos, catching Siegfried off guard as no one had felt it necessary to inform him about her impending arrival. Their reunion is awkward, their usual banter gone, and even their beloved word game falls flat once Siegfried remembers how much her leaving Skeldale had actually hurt him. He lashes out, insisting they managed perfectly well without her. 

Throughout the episode he repeatedly pushes her away, rejects her help and even shouts at her, something we’ve never seen him do before, not to that degree. He is trying to mask how deeply her absence has wounded him with anger. He understands Edward needed her help, but it seems he has a hard time understanding why she did not return once he had recovered.

Mrs. Hall feels rejected and decides to return to her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in Sunderland earlier than planned, not only breaking her own heart in the process but also that of her dog Dash, who has no desire whatsoever to leave his place next to Siegfried’s dog in Skeldale’s sitting room.

Siegfried’s moment of clarity comes out in the fields while searching for a lost flock and an aging sheepdog. Archie Treadwell, the sheep farmer, has little hope of finding his dog Sky alive and recalls their time together and how she was more than just a worker to him.

“She was your partner.” Siegfried understands. Mrs. Hall was his partner too, his constant.

When they find the flock and the injured dog, they rush to the surgery. Yet Siegfried has only one thought: Mrs. Hall. He leaves James to handle the case, which is a striking choice, since he normally would insist on treating the dog himself or at least working alongside James. Letting James handle the case alone, when moments earlier he couldn’t resist meddling, shows just how much Mrs. Hall means to him.

Siegfried is crushed when he finds Skeldale empty, the kitchen deserted, with only her pinny hanging on one of the chairs. She is gone. And he knows he has only himself to blame for chasing her off.

Desperate, he races to the station, undeterred even by the news of the war’s end breaking around him. His sole attention is on finding Mrs. Hall and stopping her from leaving. The end of the worst war in human history registers as little more than an afterthought. Siegfried has bigger things on his mind in that moment.

Spotting her on the platform, he calls out for her, using her Christian name for the very first time: “Audrey!” With the train she is supposed to board already at the platform, he admits that no one else could ever replace her, that they want her back, that they need her. She seems somewhat overwhelmed, surprised, but also thoroughly confused and distracted by the people celebrating around them. She obviously missed the big announcement. Siegfried casually informs her that the war has ended, as though it weren’t THE news of the decade. There are tears of relief and joy in her eyes as she throws her arms around him. It’s a moment of pure relief and reconnection. 

“Gathering the Flock” – ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, Pictured: Samuel West & Anna Madeley / © Playground Television UK Ltd. 2025 / © 5 Broadcasting Limited. All Rights Reserved

The episode closes with a bonfire celebration in Darrowby’s main square. For a moment it seems like everyone is there except Mrs. Hall, until, at last, she appears at Siegfried’s side. Viewers everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief.

They walk arm in arm toward the crowd, falling back into their familiar banter. All feels as it should again.

Beyond Siegfried and Mrs. Hall, we also see Tristan return from service at the front in Italy. He seems his cheerful self at first, yet subtle hints suggest something heavier lingers beneath the surface. The war has left its mark on him after all.

With James, Helen and the kids having moved to Heston Grange, the Herriot family is less prominent in the episode. Helen, in particular, has little screen time, as Rachel Shenton was heavily pregnant during filming; the production wisely worked around it, often placing her behind objects to conceal her belly.

As someone whose favourite characters are Siegfried and Mrs. Hall, this episode struck me deeply, and I found myself tearing up more than once, from both sadness and joy. 

However, while I would not trade those Siegfried and Audrey scenes for anything in this mad world, the time jump made some other parts of the episode feel somewhat incomplete. Many viewers would have loved to witness Mrs. Hall’s reunion with her son Edward after the heartbreak of the Christmas special. There was barely any interaction for us to witness, which felt like a missed opportunity. The scene between Mrs. Hall and Helen could also have gone much deeper. Tristan’s return, too, felt rather understated, almost as if he had come back from a holiday rather than a war zone. But with three years to catch up on and less than an hour to tell the story, something had to give.

This is not a fault of the writing and certainly not of the wonderful cast, but of the format itself, constrained by Channel 5’s schedule. Within those limits, they made the most of every moment, and the performances – in particular from Anna Madeley, Samuel West, and Callum Woodhouse – were nothing short of exceptional.

Another thread that suffered from the limited runtime is the question of why Mrs. Hall chose to remain with Edward even after he had recovered. Unless her son specifically asked her to stay, it’s hard to imagine why she permanently moved to Sunderland to be with him. He is healthy and happily married now. Visiting him and her granddaughter regularly, certainly, but relocating there for good? That seems unlikely. Mrs. Hall made it clear a long time ago that Darrowby is her home; she didn’t leave with Gerald back in season 4, so why would she choose to leave now? Was she waiting for Mr. Farnon to ask her to return, since their parting had left things unsettled? Did she need him to show her that he truly wanted her back? At the train station, Siegfried did just that. He finally spelled it out. He may have said “we,” but it’s hard to miss that he might just as well have said “I.”

Siegfried: “We tried to find a replacement. It could never work. No one could ever work.”

Audrey: “Because they would never put up with your nonsense.”

Siegfried: “Because they are not you! I understand you might have to live your life. If that’s not here with us… well, that’s up to you. But you should know that we would like it to be.”

For the audience, it could not have been made any more obvious throughout the episode that Siegfried cannot imagine life without her. Whether one reads it romantically or as an incredibly close friendship is up to interpretation, however there’s no denying that these two are profoundly important to each other.

A small but significant moment that highlights Mrs. Hall’s importance not only to Siegfried and Skeldale, but also to the show itself, is when Siegfried and James argue over who gets to check on an injured dog. With a gentle nudge, she steers them in the right direction, which eventually makes them want to go together voluntarily. This is why Mrs. Hall is a miracle worker: she keeps them in line and holds them together.

What was particularly enjoyable is the balance between humour and drama, something All Creatures delivers consistently but excels at in this episode especially. I’m still laughing at the scene where Siegfried pulls a rat from the pantry and introduces it to Audrey as “Gerald”, its tiny moustache reminding him of the nice but rather dull gentleman she once nearly married. The resemblance is uncanny, though one might argue the moustache works better on the rat. Behind the humour, however, the question arises: why is Gerald still on Siegfried’s mind after all these years? Has Audrey’s absence from Skeldale rekindled the same fear he once felt when she nearly left for the Lakes with Gerald? Almost losing her then was its own kind of trauma, and her absence now seems to have reignited that fear, lingering beneath the scene’s comedy.

“Gathering the Flock” – ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, Pictured: Gerald the Rat & Samuel West / © Playground Television UK Ltd. 2025 / © 5 Broadcasting Limited. All Rights Reserved

A final element worth highlighting is the background music. It perfectly complements each scene and deepens the emotional impact. While the score enhanced so many moments beautifully, my favourite was when Audrey steps off the bus in Darrowby and sees Skeldale again after months away. That piece represents how the viewers feel whenever All Creatures comes on: light, happy, and at peace, like a dark cloud has lifted and the sun is finally getting through again. Alexandra Harwood, you are a genius!

What were your favourite moments from the premiere? Do you also think Siegfried and Mrs. Hall are edging closer to something more? Let us know what you think in the comments!