The Enid Blyton Society

Famous for his role as Siegfried Farnon (based on the character of Donald Sinclair) in the James Herriot adaptations All Creatures Great and Small, Hardy expressed his initial fear upon reading the albeit charming, delightful books that it would “bore the towns and annoy the country”. The vast popularity of the adaptations proved how wrong he was. Under the director’s strict instructions not to meet the real-life people upon whom the book was based, Hardy’s response was to drive straight out to meet the eccentric Sinclair. Interestingly, in later episodes, frustrated with the new young writers for All Creatures Great and Small who “did not do their homework” in researching the back copies of earlier episodes, Hardy applied for script approval enabling him to personally write the scenes in which he acted.