All Creatures Great and Small Season 6: Release Date, Cast Updates, Plot Hints, and Everything We Know So Far
Saddle up: Darrowby could be back on our screens, with fresh plans brewing to return to the Yorkshire setting of All Creatures Great and Small.
Autumn shows up, and like clockwork Darrowby dusts itself off. All Creatures Great and Small is back, the calendar has leapt ahead, and the gang is staring down a very different world — with the same amount of mud and mischief.
When and where to watch
Season 6 is a six-parter, kicking off Thursday 25 September 2025 at 9pm on Channel 5 (aka 5), with new episodes weekly after that. If you need a refresher, Seasons 1–5 are streaming on My5.
The big reset: 1945
We jump four years to 1945, right as the war winds down. Expect some post-war upgrades at the surgery, growing families, and a few new faces. The tone is classic Darrowby: human-and-animal stories meant to warm the soul, just with a world finally exhaling after years of tension.
Here’s where everyone is when we pick back up:
James wants peace at work to match the peace on the radio — he’s balancing vet calls, a busy home life, and a Siegfried who is, to put it gently, extra. Helen is happily wrapped up with young Jimmy and Rosie, but she’s also navigating big changes over at Heston. Tristan comes home after several years away at war and has to relearn civilian life in a place that remembers him as its resident chaos pixie. And Mrs Hall does what Mrs Hall does: tries to knit the household and the practice back into something that actually functions.
Overall, the season is about everyone reconnecting, figuring out their purpose again, and looking toward an easier future — while accepting that the past doesn’t just evaporate because the church bells say so.
Tristan is not the same lad who left
Last time out, Siegfried bristled at Tristan for not having experienced the kind of frontline horrors he himself carried. That’s no longer the situation. The show skips ahead four years, and Tristan has been back on the front lines. He’s seen more than enough — and he’s trying very hard not to talk about any of it.
'He spends the series trying to push a lot of things down and try and make everyone think that he’s absolutely fine.'
Translation: the old Tristan sparkle is there, but the show drip-feeds the cracks. It’s a smart, sobering way to handle what happens after the cheering stops.
Who’s in and who’s new
- Nicholas Ralph as James Herriot
- Rachel Shenton as Helen Herriot
- Callum Woodhouse as Tristan Farnon
- Samuel West as Siegfried Farnon
- Anna Madeley as Mrs Hall
- Patricia Hodge as Mrs Pumphrey (with Derek the dog returning as Tricki Woo, naturally)
- Imogen Clawson as Jenny Alderson
- Tony Pitts as Richard Alderson
- Long-running guests: Mollie Winnard, Conor Deane, Cat Simmons, Lamin Touray
- New guest stars: Lucy-Jo Hudson (Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Wild at Heart)
- Chris Gascoyne (Coronation Street, The Feud, Patience)
- Gaia Wise (The Dead of Winter, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim)
- Jonathan Hyde (The Brutalist, Titanic)
- Philip Martin Brown (Waterloo Road, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
How it plays
Between the new veterinary gadgets (1945-style), a family baseline that keeps widening, and Siegfried turning the dial to 'challenging,' the surgery has its hands full. Helen’s dealing with changes at Heston, James is juggling everything with that stiff-upper-lip determination, Tristan is holding it together with tape and jokes, and Mrs Hall is the gravity keeping the place from spinning off its axis. The war may be over, but it left fingerprints everywhere.
Trailer
The Season 6 trailer is out now, and yes, the animals are still adorable. The feelings are, too. Plan accordingly.