Rachel Shenton on Motherhood and Making All Creatures Great and Small
Given that Rachel Shenton’s All Creatures Great and Small character, Helen Herriot, is such a loving and skilled mother, we were delighted to learn that the actor was pregnant with her first child when filming Season 6. In a December, 2025 interview with MASTERPIECE, she described her experience, shared how Anna Madeley saved the day, and gave fresh insights into Helen’s hopes and dreams. Read on for a moving interview with the beloved actor…and new mom.
Rachel Shenton as Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small Season 6 as seen on MASTERPIECE
MASTERPIECE:
Making Season 6 of All Creatures Great and Small while you were pregnant with your son initiated you into the ranks of great women actors who have stood behind something or held something in front of them on screen, congratulations!
Rachel Shenton:
Yes, there was a lot of Helen's behind a gate, and Helen's holding something. Thankfully, all the directors and cinematographers are so brilliant that they managed to shoot it in a way that it didn't stand out, which was nice.
MASTERPIECE:
What was it like for you, filming while you were pregnant, and then returning after your son’s birth to film the Christmas special (Episode 7)?
Rachel Shenton:
We did what we call “block shooting,” so they squish all my bits together at the start of the shoot, which was very kind of them, so that I could go off and have my baby. I was heavily pregnant throughout that, and so the schedule was quite intense, but it was for a short period. It was a lot of moving parts, and I'm very thankful for everybody that accommodated that.
It was a joy to film, as it always is, though a little different because I knew I'd be leaving everybody for a chunk of time. My plan was to return for the Christmas special. A lot of people said that was very ambitious, and I didn't know how I would feel, so we actually shot a couple of scenes as placeholders that would've worked with the story had I not returned. But I wanted to return. I love the show, I love everybody in it, and I love Christmas specials as a viewer, just in general, and it’s been a bit of a dream come true to be involved in a Christmas special year-on-year. So when I thought I wasn't going to be, I was a bit gutted. And then our producer Yvonne said, "We'd love you to come back, so if you feel up to it, we'll get you back." And luckily, everything went according to plan and I was able to return briefly. I did it in a couple of days and I did it with my little boy with me—I would just quite literally feed him and then go off and do my scene and go back. It was a joy and such an experience. And don't know if I'll ever get to do that again, but it was kind of wild. I loved it.
MASTERPIECE:
In a lovely post on Instagram you gave props to everyone, the cast and the crew, and you cited Anna Madeley especially. Was there anything specific that inspired your gratitude to her?
Rachel Shenton:
I always say that the cast are like the front men, like singers with the microphones, but really we're a very tiny part in a big machine of every department, from script editors, editors, people that run the floor, and people behind the cameras, that make this what it is. I'm just so thankful for the entire team of All Creatures.
And I'm indebted to Anna Madeley in many ways. We've become very good friends and I love her dearly. When I returned after having my baby...Well, it's bizarre afterwards, because it's such a heady experience and sort of bigger than I ever could have imagined, the level of love that was suddenly activated and the level of vulnerability—I know fears about things that I didn't even know about, all this stuff. I think he was only three months old when I went back, so still very much in that newborn stage. And Anna had been there and done it—when we first started shooting in Season 1, her little boy was 10 months old, so she'd very much knew what I was feeling.
Anyway, I got to my apartment, I had my mom with me, and we were making it work. Because I was going on set, I was expressing milk and decanting milk, doing all that good stuff, and of course you have to sterilize everything, and we didn't have a microwave in my apartment. So I panicked and called Anna and said, "I can't believe it. There's no microwave in my apartment." I was very emotional and sleep-deprived.
And she said, "It's okay. There's a microwave in my apartment." I was saying, "I'll see if I can send a car to get it," blah, blah, blah, and as I was talking to her on the phone—we lived quite close to each other—I looked out of the window and walking up the road was Anna Madeley, carrying a microwave. You couldn't write it. She was like, "I just had to bring it to you straight-away so you knew you'd got it." And that is just one of many examples. She's amazing.
MASTERPIECE:
Speaking of motherhood, Helen's story with Jenny in Episode 4 is so powerful. We learn more about their beautiful relationship, but also about Helen’s hopes and dreams.
Rachel Shenton:
I really love that storyline. Returning to this season, I knew it would be a whistle-stop tour and I wouldn't be able to get my teeth into it as much as I usually would, but I was absolutely thrilled when I read this story. Thrilled, and my heart was breaking because Imogen (Clawson, Jenny) and I have such a lovely relationship as well. She's ferociously bright and has such an intrigue and wonder about the world and a gorgeous energy. I remember when she first started, she was a child. She's very much a young woman with opinions and all the rest of those other things, and our relationship has evolved.
And we've watched, over the seasons, Jenny slowly slipping away from being the sort of little sister to being a friend. We saw it in Season 5 with the arrival of Doris, when she was sort of having her head turned and being influenced by another younger woman. And then when Helen was pregnant, they went on another journey of Helen realizing she had to step back, and Jenny's stepping forward. And then this is another evolution of that. I guess if Helen was honest, she knew it was coming at some point, but she probably just didn't want to think about Jenny’s leaving. There's a grief on so many levels with this. There's a grief that she's going to lose her little sister who she's come to rely on her now as a friend. And Jenny’s hugely involved in her children's life. That's important to her. She doesn't have a mom, and so their relationship is sacred.
But also, it's shining a light on her own life, and the fact that she didn't leave. Helen never went and did anything. And she always says—and I love Helen for this—is that she's so content with her lot. She's so full of life and full of energy and loves her little pocket of the world and her people in her corner that maybe I can completely believe that she never had those aspirations. But actually, in Season 6, it was the first time that I thought maybe she did. Maybe at some point she would've wanted to spread her wings, but that avenue wasn't available to her because she was a surrogate mom and very much keeping that little unit together. She needed to. And so it brought that up as well. There was grief on various levels, and letting go on other levels, and accepting this new wave of where they were. And it was so layered and gorgeous, even though it was told over quite a short period of time. I loved it.
MASTERPIECE:
There is so much emotional power in the quilt at the center of Episode 4, as it physically represents their family and the connections among the generations, the past and the future. And I was wondering if, now that you are a mother, the experience has given you any new or deeper understanding or sense of being part of a family line?
Rachel Shenton:
Yes, I think I had that sense that I was part of a line, but I think it makes you think about everything in a sort of deeper way. Maybe I think that's even more important now. I understand the weight of that, and just how important that connection is. It's everything. It's all we've got. I mean, quite literally the connection between ourselves—as family, blood family, or family that we choose—is all we have.
And I think that that is what All Creatures nails every time: It's the human connection, the human spirit, the small acts that bind us. In this case, in this episode, it was the quilt. In the grand scheme of it, it's a small thing, but it's those things that mean everything, don't they? Because when chipping down, those little things are kind of all we've got and all we're made up of. Because in the end, all that matters, I think, is who we're connected with and how we're loved. And certainly, being a woman makes you think more about that, about what really matters.
