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The coziest show of 2021 is coming back to TV. PBS has revealed a premiere date for All Creatures Great and Small Season 2. The new episodes will arrive on TV in early 2022. 

‘All Creatures Great and Small’ Season 2 premieres in January 2022 

Season 2 of All Creatures Great and Small premieres Sunday, Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. 

The second season of the show, which is based on James Herriot’s series of books about his life as a country vet in Yorkshire, will have seven episodes and will pick up several months after the season 1 finale. That episode saw Helen (Rachel Shenton) call off her wedding to Hugh (Matthew Lewis) at the last moment. 

In season 2, James (Nicholas Ralph) returns to Darrowby from Scotland, where he’s been visiting his family for the Easter holiday. A modern veterinary practice in Glasgow has offered him a job. He must decide between accepting the position — which would allow him to be closer to his aging parents — or returning to his life in Yorkshire. 

Which ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ cast members will return for season 2? 

Jenny Alderson and James Herriot, with a dog on a leash, in a scene from 'All Creatures Great and Small' Season 2
Jenny Alderson (Imogen Clawson) and James Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) in ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ Season 2 | Courtesy of Playground Television (UK) Ltd.
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Nearly all season 1 cast members will be back for All Creatures Great and Small Season 2. In addition to Ralph, Shenton, and Lewis, that includes Samuel West as James’s boss Siegfried Farnon and Callum Woodhouse as his younger brother Tristan. Anna Madeley also returns as housekeeper Mrs. Hall. 

One person who will be missing from the season 2 cast is Diana Rigg, who played the aristocratic owner of the pampered Pekingese Tricki Woo. Rigg died in 2020, and Patricia Hodge has stepped into the role. 

Will there be an ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ Season 3? 

All Creatures Great and Small Season 2 has yet to air in the U.S. (New episodes are currently airing in the U.K.) But the team behind the heartwarming period drama is already looking ahead to a third season — and hopefully more beyond that. 

“It was always planned to be a returning series,” executive producer Colin Callender told reporters at a TCA press conference in August 2021. “We’re hoping it will be multiple seasons. We just wrapped shooting season 2 … we have Ben [Vanstone], who is the head writer and the showrunner, working at the moment on the outline and stories for season 3, which will go into production in spring next year.” 

Vanstone said when he began working on the show, he envisioned it having at least four or five seasons. He added that the deliberately slow pace means there’s plenty of time to watch every character’s story unfold. 

“This show is quite peculiar in a way,” he said. “Most series eat story really quickly. Whereas this show sort of rewards playing out those stories slowly and giving those characters time to breathe. We’ve got a fair way to go.”

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