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Thanks to Dave I decided to begin rewatching the series. I had been meaning to for a while, but this thread gave me a nudge to finally do so. I have an Amazon Prime membership and get free streaming of a number of movies and TV shows through my Blu-ray player and computer. All of the "Creatures" episodes are available to watch for free.
Last night I watched the first 3 episodes, and just like what happened years ago, I found myself alternating laughter with tears of joy and also of sadness. This show just seems to have my number! Robert Hardy is a force of nature and just hilarious when called upon, which seems quite a bit. The series is very funny, but is born out the characters and their relationships with each other (the locals are quirky and offbeat), not jokes or one liners.
...And I had somehow completely forgotten about Mrs. Pumphrey and Tricki-Woo!
This weekend I watched the first 2 discs and 5 episodes so far. It took a few episodes for me to get the 'feel' for all this, but now I'm in love with this show, I've fallen for the characters and the animals like a ton of bricks! Oh yes, Mrs. Pumphrey and that dust-mop of a dog Tricki-Woo are probably the way most Briton's would treat their dogs if they had the money. The second episode had the star of the show (the new vet) with his arm completely up to the elbow in a cow's ass. He withdrew it and washed it in a bucket of water but American audiences (me?) aren't used to seeing this on tv. And this show came out in the late 1970's, and it was still an eye-opener to see green cow shit covering his hand. On the second disc, the new Vet slowly inserts his entire arm up another cow to retrieve a calf that was having difficulty being born. This was a site to see without any cuts in the editing process you can't slip up on this show; no take's two or three. Though there are dogs running all over the surgery and throughout the house, you can frequently HEAR the odd dog barking out of camera range in another room and these stray barks gets my dog's attention - he loves the show too.
Someone mentioned an episode where a lonely man has to have his dog put down. It's episode two (unless it happens again in another one?) dog has cancer and is put down in a very sad yet kind way, right on the spot. I was dicing onions at the time so it's probable that THIS was the reason I had a tear in my eye.
Disc two: an episode with a horse that's a pet to two Gypsy children but the horse is in pain with an affliction of the legs and hooves. The two vets think there's nothing that can be done for the horse, but they do do wonders with it, and the horse recovers. The little girl is from a poor family, but she extends a hand with a bouquet of picked wildflowers and offers them in sincere thanks to the vet for saving her pets life. (Yes, I was dicing onions at this time as well!)
I had to wait untill episode 4 or 5 to find out the year this was supposed to be - 1937. There is something insanely loveable about all these folk in England during this time - a simpler time to be sure. I will be eagerly viewing all the years of episodes of this marvelous entertianment. AND, the sprightly, jaunty theme music is irresistable with the music scales going up and down and up again. Just perfection! Only Britain could make a show like this.
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Posted: |
Jun 6, 2011 - 3:34 PM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Does anyone know if they ever released a soundtrack of this series? I know its all music from Johnny Pearson, and most of it was preexisting. Was there a CD release of it somewhere? I know the main title can be found on a lot of cd's, but the other tracks, I've never been able to find.
I've seen every episode of this great series and I think there was never original scoring for it. Much cues seem to come from the KPM library. A number of them can be found on these discs:
http://www2.playkpmmusic.com/pages/viewcd/viewcd.cfm?cdnum=1899
http://www2.playkpmmusic.com/pages/viewcd/viewcd.cfm?view=1898
But these are not for sale, only for licensing.
Thats it! Thanks Chriss. Too bad one cant buy them. I knew they wern't written for the show, but I still think its beautiful music. I wonder what the chances are of a commercial release someday. Even on iTunes. Surely, more people besides me would buy it? eh? 
I don't suppose this provides the required answer but - having finally dug the LP out of the box in the garage - I can say that there was an album released in 1978 on the Rampage Records (!) label: RAMP 1 All Creatures Great and Small - the Original Music from the TV Series and Other Favourite Themes - Johnny Pearson and his Orchestra.
12 tracks, all but one of which are credited to Mr. Pearson, with the odd-ball being tr.B6 Francis Lai's Love Story ... I recall it being rather flowery in its arrangement.
The album is produced by Larry Page and Adrian Kerridge and includes 1 track shown as a K.P.M. Production (tr. B1 Sleepy Shores - which was used as the theme to another TV series Owen M.D. and became a 45rpm hit reaching No.3 in the UK charts!). This track, together with the title theme are shown as being licensed from Keith Prowse Music Pub. Co. Ltd/EMI whilst the remainder of the album has other licensors.
Whilst only the title track is linked to the TV show under discussion I'm pretty certain that tr. B2 Over the Hedge Rows was used in some of the programmes. The sleeve notes state that two other tracks were used in the programmes and that the title theme ... this was originally called Piano Parchment.
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....the title theme ... this was originally called Piano Parchment.
You can never know where a composer gets his melodic inspiration from for sure, but the middle eight of the trio suggests that about 75% of the piece is a sort of 18th Century variation set on the 'DO-RE-MI' song from 'The Sound of Music' very cleverly adapted, and then the little folksong-type melody inserted to beef it up.
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