The Animals of Season 2

(gentile piano music begins) - There's this sort of aura around the back end of a cow, sounds really pantomimic, but there is.

If you move away from a cow, it doesn't like it.

It wants to know that you're next to it.

So if you have to walk away from a live cow, as you're shooting a scene.

It very often follows you.

And not necessarily in a direction that you can predict, like sideways.

- So we work with some big and potentially scary animals on this job.

(Nicholas chuckling) Recently we were working with a bull, Monte.

Who is about half the size of Jester, who played Clive last year.

But he's still a bull and he's 600 kilograms, he's massive.

And yesterday we were in this barn.

He was held back by a little gate with a bit of rope holding him and he just nudged it a couple of times and poof, he was through.

So I went that way.

Rachel was behind me, she went that way that I was giving my best swan lake impression, cause I think I went up in the air.

- I have worked with animals before, but nothing like on this scale.

So what I discovered was that bulls and pigs do not take direction that easily and are primarily motivated by food.

Whereas through very skillful training by our animal handlers, the cows, the sheep, and the horses can be encouraged to do certain things.

And it's amazing to see, but of course, Derek our Tricki Woo is the ultimate professional here, who is quite remarkable to work with, and does exactly what you need him to do, when you need him to do it without making any kind of fuss.

- Derek is the happiest dog on set.

He sits there and gurgles sometimes has a kip.

And if you could work out where his head is, he gets a treat as well.

He has a lovely life.

(Anna chuckling) - Did my first ever arm up a cow scene.

My girlfriend's dad, he's been asking me pretty much every week.

"When you doing it, when you do it, when you doing it?"

So I finally texted him one day.

I mean like, "I did it today."

He texted me, "How did it go?"

And I said, "I got weed on and pooed on, in the middle of a scene and carried on.

I didn't stop speaking."

The director was behind me laughing and you can audibly hear her on the tig, laughing and I'm there going, "Can we carry on?"

(laughing) Carrying on with the scene.

(bleating sheep) - So the script comes in and it says a lamb is born or a calf is born or a foal is born.

And it's very easy to write.

And it's very, very difficult to put onto film.

We have to make prosthetics for certain closeups that require the actors to engage with the animals, which they can't do with the real animals.

And then we have to get these moments with real animals.

That don't involve the actors or even the main film crew that needs to be part of the sequence.

And it's so complicated to pull off, but I think we've done it in this series.

(gentile music end)