All Creatures Great and Small jumped four years ahead for Season 6 - Here’s why

Season 6 of All Creatures Great and Small jumps ahead to May 1945, right when World War II in Europe is winding down. If you are watching in the U.S., PBS started airing the new season on MASTERPIECE on January 11, 2026.

With that leap in time, a lot has changed in Darrowby. Jimmy Herriot is about four and a half now, and James and Helen have welcomed a second child, Rosie. It’s obvious on screen that life has moved forward since the last batch of episodes and specials.

Why All Creatures Great and Small jumps four years ahead in Season 6

The shift of the series to May 1945 (approximately three to about four years after the action in the previous season) is explained by the direction the show would need to take the story next.

- All Creatures Great and Small did not want to get stuck in the war years.

Lead actor Nicholas Ralph (James Herriot) has stated that the crew members were confident that they could risk bogging down the series should it be done step-by-step until the entire war was concluded. In the same remarks, he referred to the time leap as “the beginning of the next chapter” and a “return to basics” where attention was again on the day-to-day veterinary life, as reported by What to Watch.

This is among the most straightforward real-life, on record explanations of the leap: the series itself is repositioning itself out of long-term plotting in wartime and back to its essential format - community stories, animals, and the Skeldale practice.

- May 1945 is a natural story pivot: the conclusion of the war in Europe.

All Creatures Great and Small Season 6 is specifically placed at a point where the triumph is just about to come or is happening in Europe. May 1945 marked the end of the war in Europe. “Victory in Europe” or VE Day is what people called the Allies’ win over Nazi Germany. The official date is May 8, 1945. When you see this in a story, it signals that the war is wrapping up, even if the characters haven’t started celebrating or heard the official news just yet.

Locating the show at this moment of historic transition helps the series to reflect that the event of the war has left its mark on everybody, and it is now open to plots about resuming routines, relationships, and the future of the community.

- The time leap establishes feasible, observable life transitions without the need to explain every month.

A jump of multiple years provides the writers with space to implement changes that would otherwise be hard to progressively introduce over the course of the show:

The Herriot family is now bigger: Jimmy is a preschooler now, and there is a newborn, Rosie.

James has become more involved in his working life: All Creatures Great and Small Season 6 materials state that he is extremely busy and is now a partner in the practice.

Skeldale House has changed: According to PBS, in the break, Mrs. Hall is staying with Edward and his family in Sunderland, and the Herriots have been staying at Heston Grange, changes that can be easily implemented when the show comes back.

That is, the jump is doing practical story work: it sets everyone back to a normal state to allow All Creatures Great and Small to begin fresh in 1945 and still have the effects of the events preceding it.

- It endorses a back-to-roots theme: animals, cases in the community, and life in the practice.

The Season 6 preview coverage at TV Insider specifically communicates this purpose in the form of cast commentary. It quotes Callum Woodhouse (Tristan) saying he wants to go back to the point of the show, which is people and animals.

Season 6 previews offered by PBS also anticipate veterinary work and the challenges of the practice (new technology and the condition of the surgery) as immediate issues after the story has been put on hold.

All Creatures Great and Small Season 5 ended with plots that made characters feel different emotionally and preconditioned the possibility of their use in the future.

Mrs. Hall’s fear during the war: Season 5 had to conclude with a crushing uncertainty as to whether her son Edward survived, then a confirmation that he did, albeit injured.

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James interrupted military career: James had his military career cut short when his brucellosis led to an explosion that brought him home and compelled him to face the traumatic legacy with the help of Helen.

Such arcs are notable context: All Creatures Great and Small Season 6 does not nullify them. Rather, it begins afresh when time has passed, when the repercussions of the war can be depicted in the manner in which individuals behave, what they do not want, and what they are attempting to reconstruct.

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