Callum Woodhouse, All Creatures Great and Small Season 6
Released February 16, 2026 31:46
WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for Episode 6 of All Creatures Great and Small Season 6.
In this season of All Creatures Great and Small, actor Callum Woodhouse’s Tristan Farnon arrives back in Darrowby on leave from the war. While his sense of humor and playful spirit are still intact, it’s clear something is eating away at Tristan. In this conversation, Callum talks about how Tristan has been changed by the war and the struggles he faces, but also how those experiences deepened his relationship with Siegfried and enabled him to bond with his new love interest, Charlotte.
This script has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.
It’s 1945 and the Yorkshire Dales buzz with eager anticipation for spring. Tristan Farnon, previously away in Italy on military duty, miraculously makes his own way back to Skeldale House. Tristan's older brother Siegfried, recently absent-minded and fully embracing the chaotic energy of bachelorhood life, neglected to pick his younger brother up at the station or even to open his letter confirming his arrival. Without the calming presence of Mrs Hall, who has been living with her son Edward in Sunderland, Siegfried has had to fend for himself on the domestic front... and upon setting foot in the house, it's immediately clear to Tristan what must be done, and he quickly embarks on his next mission.
CLIP
Tristan: So, how d’you want to go about this? Club her over the head and bundle her in the back of a taxi?
James: We’re not Shanghaiing Mrs H.
Tristan: I don’t see how else we’re going to convince her to come back.
James: We’re not going to convince her.
Tristan: We’re not? Then what’re we doing here?
James: We’re just going to explain the situation to her and hope that—
Tristan: Blimey - it’s busy around here.
James: They’ve rented a couple of rooms.
Tristan: Ah - makes sense.
Tristan and James are successful and Mrs. Hall gets Skeldale back in shape in no time. Tristan settles right in and begins taking house calls to help out the business. And on one of these calls, while treating a retired army supply horse named Philbrick, he meets a kindred spirit in the aristocratic yet down to earth Charlotte Beauvoir.
CLIP
Tristan: I’ll be back tomorrow to check his temperature.
Charlotte: Thank you, Captain Farnon. May I ask? Did you get injured?
Tristan: No. No, I’ll be going East soon. I’m only home on leave.
Charlotte: Isn’t it strange? Back in Sicily - the dust, the flies, the sun roasting you in your tent. All I could think about was England. Now that I’m here...
Tristan: Yes.
Charlotte: Just takes some adjustment, I suppose.
Tristan: Afternoon.
Beneath his humor and playful spirit, something is eating away at Tristan. He conceals his pain through distractions, but it begins to seep out in unexpected ways. One afternoon while Siegfriend and Tristan are treating a local horse, Tristan experiences a flashback that sends him into a panic, abandoning his brother at the stable.
CLIP
Siegfried: What in the name of Jupiter was that all about?!
Tristan: I’m sorry.
James: I still have a lot of work to attend to, so –
Tristan: I felt a little peculiar.
Siegfried: You looked it. As did I!
Tristan: I had to get out of there.
Siegfried: And leave me behind?!
Tristan: I said I’m sorry.
Siegfried: Are you...sickening for something?
Tristan: I don’t know.
Today, we’re joined by actor Callum Woodhouse to talk about how his character, Tristan Farnon, has been changed by the war and the struggles of reintegrating into everyday life.
Jace Lacob: And this week, we are joined by All Creatures Great and Small star Callum Woodhouse. Welcome.
Callum Woodhouse: Hello, Jace. How are you?
Jace Lacob: I'm alright. How are you doing today, Callum?
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, I'm very well, thank you, sir. Very well.
Jace Lacob: Series Six of All Creatures begins with a time jump of three years, and both Tristan and Skeldale House are different when we pick back up with them at the beginning of Episode One. What did you make initially of that time jump?
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, it's an interesting way to go about it. If I'm honest, I think initially I was a bit dubious of it. We're in a very significant time zone, and then we jump to an even more significant time zone. And yeah, I do think I was a little bit dubious of it. But I remember speaking to the writers and hearing their reasons behind it and it immediately making complete sense to me.
And we've done three seasons now in the war. We started Darrowby's experiences and time in the war in Season Three, and now we've done Four, Five and now Six, which has obviously been the end of the war, living throughout World War II. And their reason for jumping ahead and making Season Six the end of the war rather than doing another three seasons in the war was because this isn't a war show. It's always been a show about community, about family and about friends and family and about how war can affect those things.
And so, yeah, we did a time jump ahead to get us out of the war and to be honest, to get us into, when you think about it, to get us into a much more interesting phase, which is life in a community after the war. There's lots of shows about, this is what it was like during the war, this is what it was like during the war. But there's not many shows about, hey, this is what it was like for us just after the war. It was sort of just as bad. Rationing was still here. People were still struggling even though we've had this amazing victory and everyone's supposed to be happy. But there's still a lot of strife and a lot of stuff going on. And I think that's something the writers wanted to show, and it's the aftermath of war and that it's still just as much of a struggle really.
Jace Lacob: Those picking up the pieces afterwards.
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah exactly, picking up the pieces. Yeah, that's it.
Jace Lacob: And I think that's such a great distinction between a show with a wartime storyline and a wartime show. I mean, the fact that Tristan is concealing something because of the time jump, we don't really have to see that play out immediately. We can delay that until later in the series. As an actor, was it a gift to get to hold Tristan's cards close to your vest, to play at concealing his true face beneath this sort of “devil may care” humor that he typically has?
Callum Woodhouse: I mean, to be able to play Tristan for as long as I have done anyway, just on the face of it has been a true gift. Not many actors are able to say that they've played the same character for six plus years depending on how many series we do. So it's just been a gift to get to grow up in a way with Tristan and to mature as Tristan has done.
Even before the war, we've seen him grow up. We've seen his relationship with Siegfried mature. We've seen him mature in his romantic life. And we now skip ahead and he's been redeployed. And unfortunately, he has been really at the brunt end of some of the some of the unimaginable horrors of war, and he's seen it firsthand. He's been right there in the thick of it. And to be playing a character who you get to firmly establish who this character is and exactly who he is as a person, and then to just completely upend that and say he's gone through unimaginable horrors and PTSD, he has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and he is going through it. As an actor it's amazing. But at the same time, you want to be able to do it the honor and justice it deserves.
And I did a hell of a lot of research. There's museums here in London, England, where I am. They had a post-traumatic stress disorder exhibition for World War II. It was all about soldiers coming back from the Second World War and how they readjusted back into society and everything. And I couldn't have felt more lucky. It was magic. It was exactly what I needed as an actor to prepare for this role. I was trying to tell a real story of the real incredible men who gave their lives for this country. And I was able to and I was able to base a lot of that on real things that I read about, rather than make it up myself but base it in real stories, I was able to just do it all very, very honestly and truthfully.
Jace Lacob: You hate to see it, but that's very serendipitous.
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, yeah.
Jace Lacob: Very serendipitous. Tristan spends the early episodes concealing what happened to him.
CLIP
James: What happened to your letters? Your dispatches from the front were one of my few sources of entertainment.
Tristan: I ran out of anything I wanted to say. Cheers.
James: To your good health.
Jace Lacob: He deflects at every turn from James questioning why he stopped writing, to his field promotion, to his Military Cross. How did you look to use these as breadcrumbs, leading viewers to a deeper explanation?
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, I'm really glad you noticed the, “I ran out of anything I wanted to say” line. My family certainly didn't. I had to point that line out to them a little bit more. Again, exactly as you said, there's just lots of breadcrumbs. There's lots of little hints that something is not right. It's funny with characters like Tristan because I think when something's not going right and when something's bothering him, which maybe isn't a big deal, it's more of a comical or lighthearted bad event, shall we say, he's very, very vocal about it. He'll get into his fan favorite arguments with Siegfried, or make a big song and dance about something that's gone wrong on a farm or something like that.
But when there is really quite something that's deeply, deeply affected him, he keeps shtoom about it and he doesn't talk about it at all. And I think it's part of the bigger reason why All Creatures resonate so much with audiences and why it continues to resonate so much with audiences because it's incredibly true to life. People are able to be very vocal about things that aren't necessarily hugely pressing. But when there's something that has really, really, really cut them deep or affected them, they really shy away from talking about it. And that is exactly what Tristan has done.
As you said, “I ran out of things I wanted to say.” It's not at all that he ran out of things he wanted to say, he had a lot more things he wanted to say. He just didn't want to talk about those things. He couldn't bear giving them a moment's more thought, even though it's probably all he could think about.
Jace Lacob: He doesn't have the language. I do want to ask about the rapport between Tristan and Mollie Winnard’s Maggie. Series Six finds the two reconnecting, and Tris does open up a little bit to her, saying early on he's scared about being redeployed to India. And he tries to reassure her without promising that Arthur will come home. How would you describe Tristan and Maggie's dynamic, given their complicated history? And what was it like working with Mollie again here?
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, it's a really lovely relationship, actually. I think a lot of the fans are willing them to be back together in a way, which I'm not sure if that's exactly right. Of course it could work, but I don't know if I feel it's more lovely that these two have experienced a romantic connection before and then now, just really, really good friends. And that's what they are. They really are very good friends. They've got such an amazing rapport. I've always loved the scenes between Tristan and Maggie. They're almost written quite modern in a way, if that makes sense. It's like the way two people would speak now. It's almost as if their relationship is ahead of its time. And I really love that because I don't know if I could pick two characters from the show who suit being slightly ahead of their years in their relationship.
She's got her partner, Arthur, who she's had a child with who's been away at war. And I guess there's a whole thing of like, will Tristan be jealous? Will Tristan have some sort of envy of this man's relationship with his old flame? And it's just not that at all because he knows exactly what this man is going through. He's been there himself. And so he has nothing but respect and honor for this man, and I guess love in a way for him. Because in his own way, he does love Maggie. He loves Maggie for who she is as a person and for what they've shared and what they continue to share. And if there's someone around now who continues to give that to Maggie, then he's very, very appreciative of that.
Jace Lacob: So some people do want them to end up together. However, I love the relationship that forms this series between Tristan and Charlotte Beauvoir. And initially, I thought these two would be intentionally mismatched — war scarred gadfly Tristan falling for this wealthy but untouchable Charlotte, and that's not the case at all. What do you think draws these two together and links them in their commonalities?
Callum Woodhouse: I have to agree, I think they're amazingly matched. It's a funny thing because I think the war is a big part of why they've met. I wonder if the war hadn't happened and if they'd met, if they would have fallen into each other's arms the way that they have. She's spent time with a certain faction of the military efforts Tristan did spend a very small amount of time with, so knows where she's been stationed. They've both been away fighting together in a sense of the word. I think a large part of them coming together was exactly that.
It's a funny thing in terms of the whole class system of it, because there's the very, very, very die hard fan base who want Siegfried and Mrs. Hall to end up together. And this is from a time when Siegfried is the man of the house, the owner of the house. And Mrs. Hall is his housekeeper. They're from two completely different class backgrounds, which from that time wasn't as common for people to end up together like that.
And in many ways, it is the exact same relationship between Tristan and Charlotte, only it's flipped. I'm essentially the Mrs. Hall and Charlotte is the Siegfried in a way that they're from these very different class backgrounds, but they just fall for each other. I think it's interesting to have kind of the exact same storyline but gender swapped with me and Charlotte.
Jace Lacob: I love the scene between the two of them in Episode Three where the two of them dance in the stables to the music on the gramophone and Charlotte kisses Tristan. What did you make of this scene and the fact that it's Charlotte who kisses Tristan? Would he have made a move on the heiress if she hadn't taken the lead here?
Callum Woodhouse: Well, it's interesting, isn't it? He would always have been the one making the first move. But when it's someone who's a lot higher class than him, he's probably slightly scared to. And you've also got to think, is there a factor in there as well that he's just slightly cowed from his experiences in World War II. You don't know if it had been anyone whatsoever, if he'd have been slightly more reticent just because his confidence is not what it was after his experiences away.
But yeah, I couldn't agree more. I absolutely loved that scene. Me and Gaia who plays Charlotte, we did lots of dance calls, practicing our dance routine, and then got there to do it, and all the rehearsals just completely went to pot because we'd been rehearsing on a flat floor and now we were dancing on cobbled brick. And the floor was completely uneven. It was great. It was really, really great. And I think the scene looked beautiful. Our director Stewart and his DOP Ashley, he framed it beautifully with that slightly dark stable with the huge window shining in light from behind us. We were almost backlit beautifully, and we were dancing in front of it. And yeah, I remember watching it back and thinking, do you know, that is actually incredibly romantic. I think it looks beautiful. I had a great time filming it and Gaia is wonderful. She's absolutely wonderful.
MIDROLL
Jace Lacob: And we’re back with All Creatures Great and Small star, Callum Woodhouse. So Episode Six resolves the mystery swirling around Tristan's experience during the war. And this is a story that unfolds in what's unspoken, what's unstated, what's held back until Tristan is finally able to break the seal on his experiences. What was your reaction when you first read the script for this episode, and how did you prepare for the emotional climax of Tristan's story?
Callum Woodhouse: I think it was maybe my fourth time reading the script I was able to get through that whole church scene without crying myself just from reading it. The writing of that scene was absolutely stunning. It's the best writing that I've ever been able to perform, hands down. Just absolutely beautiful. I was just so thrilled and so honored that I was going to be able to get to perform it. It felt like it had been written for me, but it also felt like it had been written for lots and lots of men out there who are perhaps still struggling with re-adjusting. It felt very epic, and it felt very important. And yeah, I've never been more proud and honoured to to bring something to life in that way because it felt as if it was more than just a TV show for a second. It felt like we were doing a sort of service to people who might still be going through this type of horrible ordeal. And it felt like a lifeline as well as making great television.
Jace Lacob: No, I think this story is set in the 1940s and the Dales, but this struggle is very current, it's very contemporary, it's still going on, and it is affecting many, many people around the world who are dealing with things like Tristan is. And I think the fact that you approached your performance with such sensitivity and care, and it's very obvious how much care, I think speaks volumes, not just about All creatures Great and Small, but you as an actor. And I think this episode in particular is something you should be immensely, immensely proud of.
Callum Woodhouse: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Jace Lacob: A staggering achievement. So, news comes across on the wireless that Japan has surrendered. And it's a relief to everyone at Skeldale House except Tristan, who flees again and he leaves behind his Military Cross on his bed. And we come to the crux of the episode, the scene in Darrowby church where Tristan finally tells Siegfried what happened to him. And it's this incredible, beautiful scene. Tris, his story about Billy, the mines and the horses reveals, I think, the extent of Tristan's shame. He says,
CLIP
Tristan: There was no medic, so… I did what I could to help them but...we couldn’t move anywhere without checking the ground. There was a mine, right next to me - if Billy hadn’t screamed then… I got a medal because I managed to save a few chaps. But Billy wasn’t one of them. He saved me, but I couldn’t save him - the Cross should be his, not mine.
Jace Lacob: What does this moment mean for Tris? Is this finally the emotional release or catharsis that he has needed so badly?
Callum Woodhouse: I'm actually filling up thinking about those scenes again. That exact line, “I managed to save a few people, but he wasn't one of them.” That really does make me emotional, those lines of dialogue because I can't imagine how many more men felt the exact same, who had been saved by someone but couldn't have saved the person who helped them out. I've gotten quite emotional thinking about those lines of dialogue again, to be honest. It's just such amazing dialogue. It really is.
And yeah, I love that you mentioned him listening to the wireless again and reacting to it quite badly because not many people have mentioned that. And I think that's a really important moment as well, because I think there were a few people who were like, why is he not happy about it? He should be thrilled the war is over, but he's not because his war is not over for one thing. His war is absolutely not over. But I think he's also just thinking, well, what am I for now then? I've been essentially made a little bit of an instrument of war and hardened by all these experiences. And so now this is what I need to go and do.
And then he hears across the wireless, no, no, you never need to go and do that again. You're happy to stay at home now. And it's like, well, I don't know if I can stay home anymore. I've been so indefinitely changed that this is kind of the individual I am now. I've been hardened and I need to and I need to go and be in this environment. And I don't know if I can just stay home and act jolly and be everything's lovely and go for pints and have a pork pie in the pub. It's not that easy to just switch it all off.
And yeah, it probably is the thing that he goes up into his room and as you see Siegfried comes for him in the morning and he's polished off an entire bottle of whiskey in his room, and then he's gone, he's nowhere to be found. And it's just all come flooding back to him and he can't deal with it anymore on his own. He needs to talk about it, but he doesn't know how to talk about it, so he flees. And we have the ever wonderful Mrs. Hall who sets up the conditions perfectly in order for him to have one of his, over the course of the series, one of his many beautiful heart to hearts with his brother, which, I speak constantly about how much I love the relationship between Siegfried and Tristan. Hands down it is my favorite, favorite thing about this show. I just love the relationship that those two brothers have.
And if you look at them from Series One, you remember Series One, Siegfried telling him off and getting really, really cross with him that he hasn't passed his exams. And it's a huge indignity that Tristan has done him not passing his exams and him having to pay for him to sit his exams again. And now we fast forward five years and he's clutching Tristan to his chest, hugging him while Tristan's in tears over this horrendous thing that he has experienced at war.
God, I'm getting emotional again speaking about it. Oh, it's just such incredible writing. We've gone six years and we've experienced such highs and lows with these brothers, and they're going to continue to bicker like an old married couple. But you just think about where they were and where they are now, and there's just so much love there now in that relationship. I'm sorry, I'm actually getting emotional thinking about their relationship. I think it's so beautiful. It is so beautiful. It is hands down, my favorite thing about the show. I just love it. I just love it.
Jace Lacob: Okay. I promise I'm not trying to make you weepy here.
Callum Woodhouse: Stop it. What are you going to ask me now?
Jace Lacob: So, you mentioned him holding him. And I think that, to me, is the moment, that broke me. Because Siegfried, for all of his love for Tristan, isn't known for tenderness, but he's not just holding Tris in that scene, but he's holding him together. What was it like filming this…
Callum Woodhouse: You are trying to make me cry aren’t you?
Jace Lacob: …very raw scene with Sam West?
Callum Woodhouse: Oh, God. Sam West. I don't know if there's enough time for me to explain how much I love that man. He's one of the best actors I've ever worked with. I've been a huge Sam West fan for most of my acting life, long before I even went to drama school, let alone started acting professionally. I've followed his career and been a fan of his. And then getting to find out that I was going to be playing his errant younger brother has been, yeah. I mean, just finding out that I was going to be on screen with him was a huge achievement before I'd even stepped foot on set for Series One. And then the relationship that me and him have now as actors.
I always say in interviews and press for this show that my relationship and my feelings towards Sam massively, massively helped out and informed my acting as Tristan because I think in many ways at the really root of it, Tristan is desperately trying to impress his older brother. That's what he's always trying to do. He's always looking for Siegfried's approval because when they lost their father, Siegfried kind of became his stand-in dad in a way. And he's always trying to impress him, he's always trying to make him proud. And to be completely honest, that's what Callum Woodhouse was trying to do as an actor to Sam. I was trying to impress Sam. I wanted Sam West to think that I was a good actor. I was trying to be quite good in front of him. And it really, really informed my performance.
I just love where the brothers are now. I really love where the brothers are now, and I never want them to stop bickering. I’ll always want them to carry on having these old married couple bickering arguments about something incredibly trivial, but it just goes to show that when it gets down to the real nitty gritty, when Tristan is clearly struggling with something, Siegfried is right there for him. And he knows something is bothering him, and they sit down in the church and he's reminiscing about their younger years. Yeah, it's just gorgeous. It's just such gorgeous writing. Yeah, I love it.
Jace Lacob: By the end of the episode, Tristan turns to the epistolary game that he and Charlotte had been playing earlier in the episode to tell her how he truly feels. He says,
CLIP
Tristan: “Dearest Charlotte, my concern is that I... I shall never quite be the same chap I was again. As sincerely as it’s possible to be, Tristan.”
Charlotte: “Dearest Tristan, that’s quite alright...I like you now. Always, Charlotte.”
Jace Lacob: This is the most sincere that Tristan has been, the most vulnerable. What does it mean to him that Charlotte does accept him not as he could be, but as he is?
Callum Woodhouse: Yeah, I know I've spoken a lot about the writing of this series and about how beautiful it is, but I actually think my favorite line from the entire Series Six is Charlotte's line, “Dearest Tristan, I like you just the way you are now.” I think that's beautiful. I think it's just the most perfect line you could ever say. And she really, really does like him just the way he is now. And I think for any naysayers to the Tristan and Charlotte relationship, you've just got to look at that line. She just likes him the way he is now and she accepts him and wants him. And I think it is absolutely perfect. I think she's played wonderfully by Gaia. Gaia plays it with such sensitivity and she's so wonderful.
But, it's interesting because you wouldn't expect there to be such care and sensitivity from, I guess, a character of that class. You'd expect there to be a bit more, I don't know, a bit more of a class divide, I don't know. But she's just such a down to earth character. And you really believe it, you really believe exactly where she's coming from.
There's a lot there's a lot of hope for me that in his own way, as much as we can, that Tristan can find his way back into being the guy that we do know, the chap that he always was. I hope we can try and see as much of that as possible, but I don't know if it's ever going to go back to normal. He has perhaps been unalterably changed. And it's how he can continue in life with the experiences that he's been through. And I just think Charlotte seems like the perfect partner to go through those trials and challenges with.
Jace Lacob: I think we see that in the final scene as the beacons flare up across the Dales. Tristan finally appears in his full military uniform with his cross and ribbon. Charlotte's by his side. And it's Tris with all the thunderbolts who lights the bonfire. And he finally does seem, if not happy, he seems at peace. Do you see that final scene as a sign that he can start to rebuild his life again?
Callum Woodhouse: Yes, I do. It's not the end of the road. There's more to unpack which gets unpacked slightly in the Christmas episode. It's funny because obviously, the main heart to heart of Episode Six is between Siegfried and Tristan, and then there's some really lovely scenes between Tristan and Charlotte. But in the Christmas special, it's almost as if Tristan and Charlotte have their heart to heart, their very open heart to heart. And actually, it's not all one sided. Tristan has a little bit more to unpack, and I guess stuff that he hasn't unpacked with Charlotte, only with Siegfried and that gets explored. But there's also a lot, a lot lurking under the surface with Charlotte, which we find out about and a lot more of her undercurrent as her emotional arc and her character, which gets explored as well, which was really great. So that comes out in the Christmas special. But yeah, I think you're right. I think he's well on his way to finding peace with it. I don't know if it's completely sorted out, but we're definitely headed in the absolute right direction.
Jace Lacob: Callum Woodhouse, thank you so very much.
Callum Woodhouse: Thank you very much for having me.
Next time, a mysterious letter brings Eliza Scarlet and Alexander Blake into the ominous basement of an abandoned asylum.
CLIP
Eliza: Alexander? What are you doing here?
Blake: Well, I received an urgent note to come to this address.
Eliza: As did I. Condemned Asylum. I can think of nicer places to meet.
Join us next Thursday as we talk with lead actor Kate Phillips and writer and creator Rachael New to wrap up this gripping season of Miss Scarlet in a special bonus episode.
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