All Creatures Great and Small stars Nicholas Ralph and Callum Woodhouse have spoken candidly about the challenges of filming with animals, revealing that cats prove especially difficult on set. The latest series of the period drama has just premiered on Channel 5, set in a thriving post-war Yorkshire Dales.
Cats are the 'worst' to film with
In the latest episode of series seven, entitled The Owl and the Pussycats, broadcasting on Thursday (October 1), Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse) treats cats when Charlotte Beauvoir (Gaia Wise) needs assistance with some wild cats. Meanwhile, James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) has been charged with caring for a feline called Alfred, owned by local sweet shop proprietor Geoff Hatfield (Bruce Alexander). The pampered grey tabby became unwell and required urgent surgery performed by James and his employer, Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West) to preserve his life, with the procedure proving successful.
Discussing animal work on the period drama with Screen Time prior to series seven, Nicholas Ralph conveyed his enthusiasm for his storyline featuring Alfred the cat, though acknowledged that cats are the "worst" creatures to film alongside.
Nicholas remarked: "I'm sure you all know by now that cats are the best animals to work with, they're trainable", he joked, "No, cats are notoriously the worst, but the greatest when it comes to the scenes."
Untrainable creatures
He continued: "They are pretty untrainable, so we went through the usual rigmarole, but Alfred the cat was a gorgeous cat to have on set, and he was lovely to have around. It's a great story from the books."
Echoing what Nick said, cats are "a bit of a nightmare to work with", remarked Tristan Farnon star Callum Woodhouse. He explained: "I remember the animal trainer in the show talking about it, saying that dogs are incredibly easy to train because you can literally never ever fill a dog with food. Once they're full, they'll just be sick and be like, 'Cool, I can have more treats'."
"Whereas a cat, once it gets full, they're like 'no, I'm good'. And so you can't train them anymore. They just don't want any more treats. It's like, no, I'm full."
Wild cats played by kittens
Callum proceeded to admit: "So they are very difficult to work with. I'm also not the biggest lover of cats, just in general. I'm just a dog person through and through."
Discussing his wild cats episode, Callum revealed the roles were performed by two kittens. He noted: "Luckily, I was filming those scenes with Gaia, who is a massive cat person, so don't worry, those cats got a lot of love from Gaia. It's a really great storyline, though. I think it's going to turn out really well."
All Creatures Great and Small airs Thursday at 9pm on Channel 5.
