'Baby causes carnage' on sets of All Creatures Great and Small

Never work with children or animals they say - and now All Creatures Great and Small has ticked both boxes after the youngest human cast member caused "carnage" on set.

Fans of the Channel 5 drama know that vet James Herriot missed the birth of his son in the Christmas special due to a disgruntled RAF field officer. The fifth series begins tomorrow with Nicholas Ralph, who plays the vet-turned-war pilot. And he says that introducing a tot to Skeldale House made filming unpredictable.

Baby Jimmy was played by three separate tots - with a plastic "jelly baby" prop also on hand.

Nicholas, 34, recalled: "It was absolutely brilliant. But like with anything, there were teething problems.We had three little babies who were interchangeable, because they can only work about two hours at a time.

"The first week, it took them a minute to get used to everyone. But after that you would walk on set and see them and they're six months old and their face would light up in recognition. It was such a treat."

However, the little ones caused more havoc as they got older. In one scene, the family sat down to eat but Sam West, who plays grumpy head vet Siegfried Farnon, ended up hemmed in by the pets in the room.

Nicholas explained: "We got through the majority of the scene, then the baby chucked his food on the floor.The dogs lunged for the food.

"So we couldn't use it in the end because it was too much carnage."

In another scene one of the babies ate so much fruit they were in danger of throwing up.

Nicholas said: "We were doing a scene where [James' wife] Helen [played by Rachel Shenton] is taking Jimmy past the surgery. She's been picking strawberries, so she's got a little basket on top of the pram. When we took him out at the end he was sitting on a bed of 30 strawberries." ? All Creatures Great and Small is back on Channel 5 tomorrow at 9pm.