Yorkshire Homecoming

All Creatures Great and Small’s enlisted men adjust to life back in Darrowby

- DIANE SNYDER

Shenton and Ralph out for a pram stroll

All Creatures Great and Small

SEASON PREMIERE

Sunday, Jan. 12, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)

IT'S NOT JUST the animals that take center stage on PBS's All Creatures Great and Small. In the fifth season of Masterpiece's positively poignant British dramedy, based on veterinarian James Herriot's beloved books, the humans are stepping outside their usual roles as World War II continues to impact the pastoral Yorkshire community of Darrowby in 1941.

For executive producer Debbie O'Malley, who wrote two of the season's seven episodes, that presented a challenge. "The things people love about the show are the warmth and the humor and the sense of community," she says. "We wanted to preserve all of that but also not do a disservice to the very real hardships and sacrifices that people made."