All Creatures Great and Small Fans Brace for Tears as Season 6 Trailer Drops

Channel 5 just dropped the season 6 trailer for All Creatures Great and Small, and it is clearly aiming straight for the tear ducts. We are back in Darrowby in May 1945, right after Victory in Europe is announced, which should mean peace at last. Of course, this show thrives on the messy in-between, and the trailer leans into exactly that.

The whole thing is narrated by Anna Madeley as Mrs Hall, which is a savvy choice. Her voiceover threads together where everyone lands as the war eases and normal life tries to reboot. James (Nicholas Ralph) is splitting himself between farm calls and family duty. Helen (Rachel Shenton) is in full-on mum mode with Jimmy and Rosie while big changes at Heston loom. Siegfried (Samuel West) is still a handful in the most Siegfried way possible. And Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) finally returns home after years at war, only to find that coming back is its own battle. Mrs Hall, as ever, is the glue trying to keep the whole Skeldale circus from flying apart as everyone inches toward a calmer future.

It is a warm, wistful trailer with a little knot of nerves underneath — the show knows its audience. If you have been missing the gang, this one is basically a 'we are okay, but also not okay' hug.

Rachel Shenton on where Helen is now: 'Now, we are seeing her as a fully fledged adult, and they [Helen, James and Jimmy] are a young family. Seeing a bit more of that would be great, because James has been absent [because of the war] until early on in this season.'

Nicholas Ralph on James trying to make up for lost time: 'Certainly because of that separation, having missed the first four months of little Jimmy's life, getting back to them being a little family, a little unit, a little team, and seeing a lot more of that. Because we have missed that, the characters have missed that.'

Cast-wise, it is a busy season — the core ensemble is intact and there are some fun guest turns for the anoraks. Inside baseball heads will clock a couple of Coronation Street alums popping up too.

• Main cast: Nicholas Ralph (James), Rachel Shenton (Helen), Samuel West (Siegfried), Callum Woodhouse (Tristan), and Anna Madeley (Mrs Hall)
• Returning favorites: Patricia Hodge as Mrs Pumphrey with her scene-stealing Pekingese, Tricki; Tony Pitts as Helen's dad Richard; Imogen Clawson as Jenny
• Long-running guest stars: Mollie Winnard, Conor Deane, Cat Simmons, Lamin Touray
• New this season: Lucy-Jo Hudson and Chris Gascoyne (both from Coronation Street), plus Gaia Wise (The Dead of Winter), Jonathan Hyde (Titanic), and Philip Martin Brown (Waterloo Road)

Scheduling note: season 6 launches Thursday 25 September at 9pm on Channel 5, with episodes streaming on My5. Seasons 1–5 are already up if you need a refresher or just want to live in that Yorkshire glow a little longer.

And yes, the show is sticking around beyond this run — there is another Christmas special confirmed. Anything after 2025 has not been announced yet, so for now we take the win and keep the tissues handy.