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All Creatures Great & Small (S5E7)
Sunday, 23 February 2025 02:00 amThe Xmas Special aka S5E7: All God's Creatures.
Telly Visions recap.
I feel kinda bad when I nitpick the Telly Visions recaps, but I do feel like it's important to point out that it is not December 1942. The attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the US into WWII happened on 7 December 1941 [there was a brief mention of the US entering the war], and more importantly for this show, the sinking of the HMS Repulse (and HMS Prince of Wales) took place on 10 December 1941.
We had an announcement of this sinking instead of the King's Christmas Message, and most of the tension was whether Edward Hall's name was going to appear in the lists of casualties in the newspaper in the upcoming weeks. Mrs Hall focused on cleaning the kitchen, swapping excess clothing coupons with someone in order to get a goose set aside, and trying to prepare for the upcoming Xmas and Jimmy's first birthday celebration. In order to reduce stress on Mrs Hall, they actually hold the birthday celebration on the 23rd at Helen's family's home. Her dad and James get in a back-and-forth over whether the farm animal set or child appropriate doctor bag [with at least a stethoscope] are better gifts, since they're not in agreement on whether Jimmy will grow up to be a farmer or vet. (For what it's worth, Helen doesn't really care at this point, and she's just glad Jimmy made it to his first birthday, which gets everyone else to calm down a smidge.)
A young boy with a fondness for the unusual creatures (snail, a mouse) leaves a fox at Skeldale House earlier in December, and Mrs Hall finds solace in interacting with it as she waits for news of Edward, even though she knows she shouldn't encourage it to be around humans. A letter from Edward posted before the sinking leads her to visit a discharged shipmate [injured before this event], who does reveal that if Edward were on duty in the engine room, there's really not much of a chance of surviving. When Mrs Hall finds the fox with an infected bite (probably from a dog) on Xmas eve, she is upset that Siegfried initially suggests euthanasia which is where the title comes from (Who are you to decide which of God's creatures lives and dies?). Siegfried is aware that this is mostly a reaction to worrying over Edward, but he agrees to try to help the fox.
In the morning, there's a phone call from Edward (and the fox appears to be recovering well enough), and Xmas is salvaged as celebratory. (Except for the goose. Siegfried was distracted enough around the date that he was supposed to pick it up that Xmas is goose-less this year.) Other than all of this going on, Tristan gets a task to find pigeon breeders because the RAF is looking to increase their pigeon flock. (This was mostly a way to give a shout-out to how important pigeons were in past wars, but Tristan did help a man treat some of his pigeons for lead poisoning from lead paint and get some pigeons to breed in exchange.)
Telly Visions recap.
I feel kinda bad when I nitpick the Telly Visions recaps, but I do feel like it's important to point out that it is not December 1942. The attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the US into WWII happened on 7 December 1941 [there was a brief mention of the US entering the war], and more importantly for this show, the sinking of the HMS Repulse (and HMS Prince of Wales) took place on 10 December 1941.
We had an announcement of this sinking instead of the King's Christmas Message, and most of the tension was whether Edward Hall's name was going to appear in the lists of casualties in the newspaper in the upcoming weeks. Mrs Hall focused on cleaning the kitchen, swapping excess clothing coupons with someone in order to get a goose set aside, and trying to prepare for the upcoming Xmas and Jimmy's first birthday celebration. In order to reduce stress on Mrs Hall, they actually hold the birthday celebration on the 23rd at Helen's family's home. Her dad and James get in a back-and-forth over whether the farm animal set or child appropriate doctor bag [with at least a stethoscope] are better gifts, since they're not in agreement on whether Jimmy will grow up to be a farmer or vet. (For what it's worth, Helen doesn't really care at this point, and she's just glad Jimmy made it to his first birthday, which gets everyone else to calm down a smidge.)
A young boy with a fondness for the unusual creatures (snail, a mouse) leaves a fox at Skeldale House earlier in December, and Mrs Hall finds solace in interacting with it as she waits for news of Edward, even though she knows she shouldn't encourage it to be around humans. A letter from Edward posted before the sinking leads her to visit a discharged shipmate [injured before this event], who does reveal that if Edward were on duty in the engine room, there's really not much of a chance of surviving. When Mrs Hall finds the fox with an infected bite (probably from a dog) on Xmas eve, she is upset that Siegfried initially suggests euthanasia which is where the title comes from (Who are you to decide which of God's creatures lives and dies?). Siegfried is aware that this is mostly a reaction to worrying over Edward, but he agrees to try to help the fox.
In the morning, there's a phone call from Edward (and the fox appears to be recovering well enough), and Xmas is salvaged as celebratory. (Except for the goose. Siegfried was distracted enough around the date that he was supposed to pick it up that Xmas is goose-less this year.) Other than all of this going on, Tristan gets a task to find pigeon breeders because the RAF is looking to increase their pigeon flock. (This was mostly a way to give a shout-out to how important pigeons were in past wars, but Tristan did help a man treat some of his pigeons for lead poisoning from lead paint and get some pigeons to breed in exchange.)
