Tristan’s on pigeon patrol, and a merry Christmas to all. I know that we’re always celebrating an All Creatures Christmas in mid-February, but it’s a nice shock to the dreary February system. All of a sudden, people are cheery again and singing songs and drinking festive drinks instead of tromping out to their cars in greyish snow and below-zero temperatures to scrape ice off their windshields while swearing. Although maybe that’s just me (odds say no). In Darrowby, they may be low on meat and sugar, but they are not low on camaraderie. I get to say things like that because it’s February Christmas.
First of all, since I’m in charge of Jimmy Watch, Jimmy is suddenly enormous. I forgot he was born on Christmas, so this episode partly revolves around his first birthday (!), and now, instead of knitted onesies, he has a little sweater and collared shirt on. Also, for some reason, they switch Jimmies on us partway through the episode and only for one scene. They tried to bundle him up to disguise it, but that is clearly an entirely different baby, which the credits bear out as we discover that Jimmy is here played by twins (very normal), and then one rando. I presume both twins were indisposed for the scene with Helen’s dad talking about Jimmy looking at cats, so they grabbed some baby off the street. I tried to see if their last name lined up with literally any of the cast/crew, but no luck. And so ends Jimmy Watch 2025.
The seems-very-sad-but-ends-up-okay storyline of the Christmas special is that the Japanese hit Mrs. Hall’s son’s ship, and half the crew are presumed dead. Edward worked in the engine room at the bottom of the ship, so Mrs. Hall has a hard time convincing herself he’s still alive, and she is having a very hard time, indeed. She ends up transferring some of her feelings about Edward onto an injured fox that she asks Siegfried to help with after she feeds it dog biscuits, and it becomes tame enough to hang around the village, whereupon it gets bitten by a dog. I need to state right now that in America, or at least in much of America, foxes are rare and cool. I would be delighted to see a fox. I get that in England, they are common and very annoying, but I also don’t get that because they’re cute and I love them.
Anyway, Siegfried, in a moment of “not really thinking at all,” tells Mrs. Hall that the fox likely won’t make it because the bite is infected, and he is going to give it an injection to put it down peacefully. Mrs. Hall goes off on him, asking who he is to decide who lives or dies. Anna Madeley is SO GOOD in this whole episode. It’s like she’s a racehorse who’s been trotting around a track, and then someone finally lets her run. But, like, with acting. An acting racehorse. Wait, that’s not it. Anyway, great job, Anna Madeley, and thank you again for being in multiple lesbian period films from 2008 to 2010. I appreciate you.
Siegfried saves the fox, whom I shall name “Cubby,” because he loves Mrs. Hall and I love them, and maybe Cubby is injured enough that they shouldn’t release him back into the wild, and he can live at the practice with the dogs. Wild animals love not living in their natural environments, right? We learn about Edward’s fate too, but hold on, because pigeon storyline.
Tristan is doing a surprisingly good job at lecturing the Royal Army Veterinary Corps soldiers about taking care of mules and the like. Such a good job, in fact, that he is given another assignment: get twelve fat pigeons so the army can get some more quality pigeon babies to train in the ways of stealth pigeonry. His superior officer calls them “bloody heroes, these little birds.” They, of course, need them by Christmas. A Christmas pigeon plot!
When Tristan tells Siegfried about his pigeon assignment, Siegfried tells him how remarkable pigeons are and how they can find their way home from a thousand miles away. He also mentions Cher Ami, a decorated WWI pigeon. Siegfried mentions Enoch Sykes, a local man who breeds champion pigeons. Tristan is on it. Off to gather pigeons! Or he would, except Mr. Sykes’s pigeons are pooping in neon green, and that’s a problem. Sykes lets Tristan take one pigeon (Ripley) back to Skeldale for tests, only when Tristan gets there, Ripley is already dead.
So now Tristan either has to perform a pigeon autopsy or ship it off to the lab. Siegfried’s profound lack of faith in Tristan’s pigeon dissection skills causes him to ship it off to the lab. Tristan’s cunning plan for telling Sykes about his beloved dead pigeon is to completely avoid him and pretend to be Siegfried on the phone. Perfect, Tristan. No chance of backfiring. Until Sykes shows up and calls Tristan a coward. That is fair, sir. Sykes says other pigeons have died in the interim, and he completely blames Tristan’s malevolent presence and has warned all other local pigeon breeders about him.
This leaves Tristan with absolutely zero pigeon access, and lest you forget, we have a pigeon deadline. Fortunately, the results come in from the lab, and it is lead poisoning. But from where! Surely you aren’t implying that pigeons will just eat anything. Tristan is back off to Mr. Sykes’s to check out the pigeon environment. He discovers that Sykes was throwing pigeon feed into the cages in such a way that it knocked lead paint chips off the cage ceiling and onto the floor, where the pigeons, of course, ate them. Because they are pigeons. So now Tristan is no longer “the Bird Killer of Darrowby,” and Mission Pigeon Breeder is a go.
So now everyone is back at Skeldale, it’s Christmas, Cubby the Fox is alive and well, and Mrs. Hall gets a long-distance phone call. Yes, you’re right, it’s EDWARD, alive as Cubby, and calling from a hospital in Singapore. He’s injured, but he’s all right. Mrs. Hall starts sobbing, Siegfried tears up, and everyone is so happy because everyone loves Mrs. Hall. Siegfried makes celebratory drinks for them all, and they sit down to dinner. Mrs. Hall makes a speech thanking them for helping her get through with their kindness and understanding.
We close on what this show excels in: a cozy atmosphere. We have carols on the radio, a room lit by firelight, and a Christmas tree. Tristan is playing charades with the family, and Mrs. Hall looks out the window to see it snowing. Goodbye, Darrowby Family! Please stay with us for at least four more years.