[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for All Creatures Great and Small Season 5 Episode 1, “To All our Boys.”]
Veterinarian Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West) gave Skeldale’s housekeeper Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley) a look that would make you believe he’s in love with her in the All Creatures Great and Small Season 5 premiere on Sunday, January 12 on PBS. The episode marked a tonal shift for the series as it depicts the hardships of World War II, albeit it doesn’t completely abandon its warm nature. Everyone’s contributing to the war effort in 1941 Darrowby, and for Mrs. Hall, that means signing up to be blackout warden alongside the prickly Mr. Bosworth (Ted Lasso‘s Jeremy Swift).
Siegfried was nothing short of awestruck upon first sight of Audrey in uniform near the episode’s end (see above), and she was surprised by his response. He was thoroughly impressed by her decision to serve and told her not to worry about household duties as much while she’s committing herself to the cause. Some fans of the Masterpiece drama have long hoped that the widowed Siegfried and Audrey would get together, as they feel the characters have been flirting for a long time. What’s more, the inspiration for Siegfried’s character, veterinarian Donald Sinclair, was married to a woman named Audrey. Now that Mrs. Hall is single following her Season 4 split from fiancé Gerald (Will Thorp), will the show lean into this romantic possibility? The actors have said that their relationship gets more complicated in Season 5.
“The relationship with Mr. Farnon is so complex because there’s so many layers to it, in that he employs her in the house, as well as that they have a real fondness for each other, and they are very good friends to one another,” Madeley told Express around the show’s U.K. premiere in 2024. “You can see where there’d be potential there. Then with Gerald, he’s the first person that comes along that you really see in another way, helping Mrs. Hall out.”
West said that Siegfried will feel “protective” of Audrey this season as she carries out her warden duties (she’s the town’s first and only woman on that team, and Mr. Bosworth had to be convinced to let her on).
“I think Siegfried is caught up with ideas of protecting Mrs. Hall and being angered by Bosworth’s jobsworthing,” he said. “And he oversteps the mark in trying to protect somebody he would see as staff but also as a friend. My friend and companion and housekeeper is away doing important stuff that I’m not being asked to do. And he slightly feels like a spare part at a wedding.”
The actors have remained tightlipped about whether Siegfried and Audrey will get together.
“I think, ‘No comment’ is the only thing to say,” West said, per Hello!. As Madeley added, “I think we’ll remain enigmatic about that. That’s for you to be interested in.”
Swift told TV Insider that Mrs. Hall and Mr. Bosworth strike up some kind of relationship as they work together as blackout wardens. He didn’t say if it was romantic per se, but he didn’t rule out that possibility either. He did, however, reveal that Mr. Bosworth has “two or three fantastic squabbles” with Siegfried. Perhaps they’re fighting over Mrs. Hall, even if that’s a subconscious feeling?
Elsewhere in the episode, a medical issue forced James (Nicholas Ralph) out of his role as a pilot in a Royal Air Force bomber crew. The chronic illness was contracted in an earlier season and was something that James and wife Helen (Rachel Shenton) were concerned their infant son would contract. They never expected James to fall ill with it, and they definitely never imagined that it would get him discharged from the military. James didn’t want to go home at first; he was compelled to continue serving and leading his men, who were sent on a dangerous mission without him after his diagnosis and many of them didn’t survive. Eventually, he decided to return home to his family.
When it comes to Siegfried and Audrey, should the show go for it and bring this employer and employee together as a couple? Let us know your thoughts in the poll below.
All Creatures Great and Small, Sundays, 9/8c, PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)
