The Cast on James & Helen’s Romantic Journey
All Creatures Great and Small‘s Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton discuss James Herriot and Helen Alderson’s romantic journey and the most magical moments their characters shared along the way, stepped-on toes and all!
[Contains Season 2, Episode 6 spoilers]
What was it like to return to the storyline of James and Helen’s romance in Season 2?
Rachel Shenton: It was great. We didn’t know how it was going to play out or work, because the last time we saw Helen was at the wedding that never was, and there was so much unspoken between the two of them, but nothing happened. So I was really interested to see how that would play out, what that story would look like and what Ben [Vanstone, series lead writer] would do, and we couldn’t have wished for anything better. They really tentatively stepped towards each other [in Season 2], and it’s done with a lot of care and consideration, which is indicative of those two as people and how their relationship evolves.
And so Ben absolutely did that perfectly. There were so many moments that we were reading it as actors going, “Oh, come on, will they get together?” So it was really nice. I couldn’t have wished for anything better really—I love how they stepped towards each other.
Nicholas Ralph: Yeah, we would read the scripts and then we’d message each other and be like, “Have you read Episode 4 yet? Did you see that bit in Episode 4?” So we were chuffed with how it ended up panning out, with these two characters slowly being reintroduced to one another under new circumstances, both being single. It was a really lovely, gentle through-line for the two characters.
One of the most charming things about their relationship in Season 2 is the sort of awkwardness and clumsiness, mostly on James’ part. What do you think lies at the root of this clumsiness?
Nicholas Ralph: I think he’s in constant battle between heart and head. He’s got this logical thought process of how he should be doing things, and he’s getting advice from Tristan, getting pulled one way, and then Siegfried keeps coming in and pushing him the other way, and he’s trying to work it all out. He’s battling this overwhelming feeling that he has, and he just needs to go with that. Even at the end of Season 1, when they’re up at the Chapmans’ and Helen’s about to get married the next day, Anne says, “Why don’t you tell her?” Even then, he’s in constant battle, trying to do the right thing and be the good guy—and he does that, and he does it wonderfully. So yeah, it’s this constant battle between the two, and the outcome is that sometimes he mumbles and fumbles his words, or he tries to do something, go out on a date or whatever it is, and it doesn’t just quite come off.
They don’t just fall in love with the idea of someone, or the facade of someone—they love the in and outs, the whole person.
It does come off beautifully at the end of Episode 3, up on the roof at Heston Grange, when Helen is describing the place through all these moments with her mother, who she’s still grieving. And then they have their first kiss! It’s such a moving moment and one of my favorites all season. Did you have a favorite scene between the two of them this season?
Nicholas Ralph: I think it’s a really beautiful moment and scene, with the whole thing. Within that moment, there’s no acting required because Rach does it so beautifully. Yeah, very little acting required on my part, because you’re moved, and you’re touched, and you’re transported, and you can see everything she’s talking about.
Rachel Shenton: That’s very kind of you, thank you.
Nicholas Ralph: You told me to say that.
Rachel Shenton: And I just wired you that money as well, so appreciate that.
Nicholas Ralph: Cheers.
Rachel Shenton:Â No, it was great, and that was one of my favorite moments. I think what’s really nice about this relationship and what I’ve always enjoyed is that James offers a safe space for Helen to be vulnerable. She doesn’t really have the opportunity to do that anywhere else. When she’s at home, she’s taken on a parental role with her sister, and her dad doesn’t really have the emotional toolbox to deal with a grieving woman or somebody who’s quite vulnerable, and so she doesn’t have an outlet.
I think that what’s so nice for Helen meeting James is that he’s unassuming, he’s fresh, he’s from somewhere else, he doesn’t know everybody that she grew up with, and there’s no judgement, so she’s safe to be a bit more vulnerable. Nice things happen when people are a bit more vulnerable, I think, and the relationship and what blossoms is really a testament to James holding space for that.
That was definitely one of my favorite moments, but there were loads. I really liked the car with the clumsy proposal, I liked the roof, and I loved the dancing in Episode 2 when they had a good time them together for the first time.
Nicholas Ralph: The dancing was so much fun. We only got it the night before, so I managed to get Rach into the steps the night before.
Rachel Shenton: Don’t even listen to that. I was dragging him around!
Nicholas Ralph: I had to ask if I could stop stepping on her toes because I stepped on them a few times, and one time I think I got you quite good and she let me have it with her heel! [Laughs] So was like, “Can I stop standing on her toes now?” Her poor little feet.
Rachel Shenton: But it was good fun. And we would practice outside when we could to try and get that right, because it was a really long scene, and we had to dance for the whole of the scene, so it was like a good two and a half minutes of rotating.
Nicholas Ralph: Yeah. But I think definitely one of my favorite moments would be on the barn roof. And just around about that time up in the Yorkshire Dales, the weather was awful. It was raining all the time, gray skies, and when we read the scene it just sounded so good, like, “It’s the golden hour, the sun’s coming down…” I could see it in my head, but the weather wasn’t playing up to it. We talked about it so much that I really feel that we spoke it into happening, because from four o’clock for that one evening, when we filmed it, it was gorgeous, and multiple days before that—terrible. The days after it—awful. But for that little moment, that afternoon, that evening, it was beautiful. It all just came together on the day.
How would you describe their journey as a couple?
Nicholas Ralph: I suppose it’s along the lines of what we were talking about, in that it’s a gentle marrying up of two people. They don’t just fall in love with the idea of someone, or the facade of someone—they love the in and outs, the whole person. This season, there’s this push and pull for James because he’s offered a job he’d really fancied for himself in this plush practice working, with smaller animals back in Glasgow, and his folks are having a hard time financially. But he returns to the Dales in Episode 1 and we’re reintroduced to everything that he fell in love with there: the Dales, this surrogate family that he’s found himself in, and of course, Helen.
In fact, they both have deep responsibilities to their families. James feels an obligation to return, and Helen has been working on the farm and trying to fill this hole in their family from losing her mom. This sense of familial responsibility is something that they share, and it really speaks to their character, as good, responsible people.
Rachel Shenton: I think you’re absolutely right, and it’s a testament to them and their moral compass, really. I think that those kind of things are considerations in a relationship even now, but certainly were back then. Helen has taken on a parental role within that house—she feels that’s her duty, and wonders how her relationship with James may compromise that; where she would go, how that would work, and of course she just walked away from a potential marriage to Hugh, as well. So her place was firmly in that house and I think she feels safe there.
But I guess, like any good love story, they’ll find a way of working it out. I guess that’s really like any relationship, really—it’s very rare that there’s no pull in some different direction, so it’s really relatable that these two people have to navigate through their responsibilities and those kind of things. But ultimately, I think that love wins.
Nicholas Ralph: Yeah, I think that’s what’s so great about it—because it’s based on real people, the characters are three dimensional, the relationships are intricate, and people can really identify with them and invest in their stories and relationships. And like Rach was saying, I think it’s because it’s steeped in this kind of truth that it feels very real, and is another reason why people really get on board with it and see it through, as well. Even though people may know where it goes, it’s hopefully the journey of how they get there that still intrigues people.
