The Yorkshire Vet star Peter Wright has opened up on 10 years of the popular Channel 5 show and discussed the many emotional roller coasters over a decade of the series
It has been 10 years since The Yorkshire Vet hit screens and won over two million viewers as three vets take on nail-biting rescue missions complete with northern charm. Fans of the Channel 5 show have been taken on many emotional roller coasters over a decade – including when horrified vet Peter Wright, 69, treated a bulldog injured while trying to have sex with a hedgehog.
Colleague Matt Jackson-Smith, 36, was given the grisly job of removing Gideon the goat’s testicles, while Julian Norton, 53, helped Gary the donkey with a huge cyst on his penis. All in a day’s work for the trio. The show originated at Skeldale Veterinary Centre in Thirsk, first made famous by James Herriot and All Creatures Great and Small.
Animal dignity – or lack of – aside, no one is more stunned that such jobs could amass a global audience than Peter. He says: “We were approached by a television production company to make a programme about a country vet in Yorkshire.
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“I thought, ‘Well, no’ and deleted the email. I didn’t even really look at it. A few weeks later they sent another and I read it this time and I still thought no – so I didn’t respond to that, either.”
But Peter trusted his instincts when he met the producers. He says: “I eventually agreed to let the managing director see us. He had an honest face, and he used the words ‘trust’ and ‘loyalty’ and he said he won’t let us down.
“I still thought it would be a flop. All these veterinary programmes had been done before, I said it’s old hat. I said to my wife Lin nobody will watch it.
“She reminded me they would not be interested in me, they would be interested in the patients. I don’t find myself interesting, and neither does my wife! Here we are 10 years and 250 episodes on being shown in 18 countries.” Peter has even been recognised at the Taj Mahal by Australian tourists.
He adds: “Every time I see the managing director, he rams it down my throat how wrong I was. It has been a success for a number of reasons. I think it’s our beautiful countryside in Yorkshire, and I think it is also we have a very dry local sense of humour and of course a welcoming, friendly nature.”
Peter is not the only star who can’t believe the show is still going after a decade, as the cast mark 22 series.
Matt, who joined the show five years ago, says: “At the start, I didn’t watch it, my grandma did, and she said that I should. It was a pinch-yourself moment. The audience could not have been more welcoming and it was the best decision I could have made.
“My wife and I were on honeymoon in Mauritius and there was a Yorkshire Vet fan. I do get, ‘I thought it was you!’ quite often. The show’s fans are incredible. We’re so fortunate.”
Of course the real stars are the animals, but what really sets this show apart is the Yorkshire scenery. Peter adds: “It was said Ben Frow, head of programmes at Channel 5, had a love affair with Yorkshire. He told me, ‘There would have been none of these programmes if Yorkshire Vet had failed’, including All Creatures Great and Small.
“That’s an earth-shattering statement. If we’d failed, it would have been the end of that love affair. We wouldn’t have all these wonderful programmes.”
The Yorkshire Vet: A Decade in the Moors and Dales is on Channel 5 at 9pm on Wednesday.
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