The Cast Gushes Over All Babies Cute and Small
When baby Jimmy joined All Creatures Great and Small in Season 5, not one baby, but five, joined the cast, and the show’s stars are (goo goo) gaga over each and every one! Find out how they filmed with the babies and what it was like on set, favorite moments, which cast member worked in a nursery, and which one became, well, broody from the experience!
- 1.
What was it like to work with the babies in Season 5 of All Creatures Great and Small?
Nicholas Ralph: The babies, little Winter and Remy, both about six months old, were absolutely brilliant. The cutest thing about it was just seeing how they developed. Because they were brought onto set, with a lot of new people and all the machinery and all sorts going on, and they had a lot to take in, and were a little bit uneasy at the start. Of course, who can blame them? It was such a new world to them! But then give them a couple of weeks, and it was like old friends. They would come on and you would say, “Hi,” and their little faces would light up, and they would be like, “Oh, it’s you again!” And then in scenes when I’d be carrying little Winter or Remy, they would stare up at you smiling or playing with your face, things like that. So it was just wonderful to have this little bond with this little person. It was lovely.
Callum Woodhouse: Working with the babies is very similarly to working with animals—they’re just so unpredictable. You can’t give them direction, and they can’t tell you what they’re going to do, so whatever they do, it’s always going to be really fresh and different. There were so many times with the animals where Baby Jimmy did something in the middle of a take that he hadn’t done before, and we all reacted to it, and it’s made it in, because it’s real.
The babies have helped breathe a lot of life into the series—it was beautiful working with them. They’re so sweet and cute, you just want to be with them the whole time. And I think they took a shine to me as well, which was nice. Tristan’s very much the fun-loving uncle. So that continued off screen, as well as on.
Rachel Shenton: I have so many cute and funny moments with the babies. The bulk of my time has been spent with them. Of course, babies aren’t legally allowed to work more than a few hours a day and our filming days are 12 hours, so we had five different babies, five different Jimmys, in total. They were all lovely, and so brilliant. My favorite moment was always trying to get their attention for long enough before they spotted the boom, because once they’ve spotted the boom, that’s it—it’s over. The baby will be following like a cat. We’ve had to call “Cut!” so many times because of that. Our director would be like, “Try and get his attention.” And I’m like, “I’m trying, but I can’t compete with this. It’s got a big fluffy thing on it. The baby must be like, ‘What’s that animal?’”
Anna Madeley: It’s gorgeous having the babies on set. It makes everybody behave very well and work fast and very quietly. And they’re very distracting. You’re playing a scene and suddenly a baby starts chatting in the background, so that’s always interesting to work around or work with. Sometimes it changes the scene completely in a good way.
Imogen Clawson: Jenny really loves Jimmy so much, so anytime I get to act with the baby, it’s such a special moment because I want us to connect as well. And scenes with the baby are just so much more organic and natural because the babies are unpredictable—they can cry, they can shout, they can laugh, they can grab. When we have all the cast, the animals, and the baby, there’s a lot going on set, so sometimes it can be a bit crazy. But because we’ve got that family dynamic now, after so many seasons, when you have those special moments where everything’s calm with the baby and just organic, natural things will happen on screen, and we can just keep rolling and see what happens. And I think that’s just so much fun. You have so much freedom with that.
James Anthony Rose: Carmody doesn’t interact with baby Jimmy very much, which is a shame because I personally love babies. I used to work in a nursery, and so I loved being around the babies. Carmody, on the other hand, is quite bemused by them I think, as I don’t think he had particularly attentive parents when he was little. I think he’s still fond of Jimmy, though, even if he doesn’t have a particularly close relationship him.
Samuel West: They’re all delightful and very, very interested and cool. I mean, of course, when a baby is concentrating on something, nobody’s looking anywhere else, so we all lose the scenes. If Jimmy’s in it, it’s Jimmy’s scene.
- 2.
Can you share any standout memories of working with the babies?
Rachel Shenton: A funny story that springs to mind is filming the scene where I’d been out picking strawberries. Jimmy was in his pram and the strawberries were on top, just within reaching distance. And when the scene ended, his pram was full of half-eaten strawberries and juice—he’d pick one up, take a bite, and then discard it! The babies always kept us entertained.
James Anthony Rose: There is one particular scene, when James and Carmody take Baby Jimmy with them on a job, and Jimmy starts to get a bit upset because he’s missing Helen, and James is trying to comfort him. The difficulty in getting that shot was to try and capture one of the babies looking a bit unsettled in the short time we had them for, but not so distressed that it looked like James was being a neglectful parent. Of course, babies can’t just cry on cue, and we didn’t want the baby to get genuinely uncomfortable or upset. Initially the baby was crying a little bit too much, and poor Nick (as James) was trying to calm Jimmy, to no avail. So we had to give the baby back to his real parent, and he was fine. In the end, the shot is only about two seconds long, but it was just waiting for that expression of slight discomfort to give the idea that Jimmy wasn’t very happy. The rest can be achieved through putting a baby crying sound effect over the top.
Samuel West: I did manage to pass him a rattle at one point and say, “Perhaps this will refresh your memory.” If that makes it into the cut, it will make me smile a lot, because that’s our oldest joke on set.
- 3.
They say “never work with babies or animals” and you’ve done both. Which is more challenging, which more rewarding, are the experiences at all alike?
Rachel Shenton: I guess the unpredictability is similar. You never know how a baby will feel when the cameras roll, and that’s the same with the animals. Both bring a level of focus to a scene, which I enjoy. And if things don’t go according to plan, then you have to be nimble and think on your feet, which is nice. It keeps you fresh.
Callum Woodhouse: It’s funny, I think if you’d asked me this around 10 years ago, while I was on The Durrells, I would’ve definitely said I much prefer working with animals. But I’m getting to that stage now—I did really enjoy being around babies, it made me quite broody. God, I hope my girlfriend doesn’t hear this! [Laughs] Yeah, it’s fantastic working with both, it really is. Each have their own challenges and each have their own rewards. And I feel really lucky enough to have worked on two shows where I’m able to experience all of it.
James Anthony Rose: In a not dissimilar way to working with the animals in a scene, a baby brings the potential for a lot of spontaneity and liveness to filming, because we were never quite sure what they were going to do whilst we were doing all our ‘acting’ delivering our lines and hitting our marks around them. They’re oblivious to all that, and are just being totally instinctive, which is what actors often strive for themselves. So I feel like I learn a lot from watching animals and babies.
Samuel West: It’s a bit like working with animals, in that you have to be quiet and respectful and you want them to feel safe. And if they’ve been handled properly, like most screen babies have, then they don’t mind being away from their parent. And most of them sit down and go, “Oh, this is interesting. Who are you? What’s that?” And that’s all we need really.
