All Creatures Grwat and Small (spoiler)

[Anonymous]

I am so aggravated by this show.
I looked up what happened to the survivors of the HMS Repulse and it’s awful , like really really awful. Of all the war stories they could have picked, why did they have to put lovely Mrs Hall’s son in literally the worst series of events for a British soldier? How am I supposed to enjoy the adorable animals and charming accents?
I read all the books many decades ago and my memory is that the books barely touched on the war.

[Anonymous]

This series doesn't follow the books with intense closeness--but neither did the 1970s-80s series.

Overall this series is giving more weight to war and its iimpact--not only WWII but also WWI (Siegfried's war experiences). We got to see the impact on James because he lost his whole flight crew to death or grave injury, and he blames himself.

So it made sense to me that the writers placed Edwards on HMS Repulse, because a "family" the size of the "All Creatures" family would surely be very likely to have at least one loss of life or at least serious injury in the war. And that wasn't going to be James or Tristan. I fully expected he'd be killed. And I'm not sure from your post if you've seen all the episodes in the current season...If you haven't, just know that you do not have to fret about Edward after all.

But showing us the fear and the horrible waiting, waiting, waiting for news that families had to endure then -- that was well done, I think, and valuable. It's easy for us to forget how very long it took for news of specific casualties or specific surviors to reach the families, in those days. I ached for Mrs. Hall, having to wait stoically to see a list in a newspaper.

[Anonymous]

PP here. I should note, you say the survivors of HMS Repulse, so you know Edward survived. We'll have to wait and see if his injuries become part of the story and how that might affect Mrs. Hall. But the war storylines, for me, don't affect my enjoyment of the vet storylines at all. The war storylines only make me appreciate the animals so much more. It's more poignant and real (again, speaking for myself and not you) that the farming community has to keep going in the face of the awful realities being visited on families.