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All Creatures Great and Small’s Siegfried Farnon actor Samuel West has opened up about his role and feeling ‘slightly jealous’ of his co-star

The sixth series of All Creatures Great and Small is set to grace Channel 5 on Thursday 25 September at 9pm.

In anticipation of the new series, Samuel West, who portrays Siegfried Farnon, has shared insights into the upcoming season. The 59 year old actor has been bringing Siegfried to life since 2020.

Siegfried, the quirky proprietor of Skeldale House veterinary practice, shines in Channel 5’s rendition of All Creatures Great and Small.

This beloved family drama is inspired by the treasured writings of Yorkshire vet Alf Wight, who wrote about his experiences as a rural veterinarian under the pen name James Herriot.

The colourful personalities that inhabit the All Creatures books and their screen adaptations are drawn from real people, with Siegfried being based on Alf’s actual employer, Donald Sinclair, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Samuel, the actor behind Siegfried, has divulged details about series six and the animal escapades his character encounters.

He revealed: “We have our first Shire horse. That’s an amazing animal. I don’t know how it took us that long to get round to a Shire, but it was a beautiful, beautiful creature, and very well looked after. I had to get good at pulling up the hoof to look at it from the side.”

Samuel also confessed feeling ‘slightly jealous’ of his fellow cast member Callum Woodhouse, who plays Tristan Farnon.

He confessed: “I wish I had more to do with horses. When they said that Tristan was going to start looking at horses with me, it was the first time I felt slightly jealous.

“‘Let it be me! Siegfried is the one who’s good at horses! I’m the one who they asked for by name!’ But of course, you shouldn’t let me be comfortable in that – there are always new things to learn.”

He went on to say: “And there is such a thing as an aura around people. You meet it, and you can almost see it in people who are very calm or very disturbed – and animals certainly know it. Horses pick up on it immediately.

“So, working with them, I don’t know… I remember realising that our crew was so concentrated and so still and so talented that if I was doing a two-handed scene with a horse, and it was just me looking at the horse and waiting for a reaction, almost waiting for eye contact, or just sharing something that didn’t take words, I could probably wait there for a minute and nobody would say cut.

“And that’s an extraordinary feeling. It’s really good, because you’re filming something that’s invisible – something that’s happening between an animal that can’t speak and somebody else who is trying to read their thoughts, their feelings.

“But when we get it, we get it. We can see it. It’s like magnetism. It may not be visible, but we can sense that it’s there. I find that really exciting.

“It works with horses mostly, but you also get it with cows and obviously dogs and cats as well – but mostly with the larger animals.”

All Creatures Great and Small returns on Thursday 25 September at 9pm on Channel 5.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The U.S. gross domestic product was revised slightly upward, according to the second estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Thursday.

The GDP, which is a measure of all goods and services produced in the American economy, rose to an annualized rate of 3.3% from April to June instead of its earlier estimate of 3%, the BEA said.

The new estimate still shows a sharp rebound from the first quarter, which was down 0.5%.

Consumer spending was revised up to a 1.6% annualized rate in the latest estimate, up from the 1.4% previously reported. Spending is about two-thirds of the U.S. economy.

“With the initial brunt of the tariff shock behind us and the economy losing momentum, we expect to see sub-1% GDP growth in the second half of the year,” said Oren Klachkin, financial markets economist at Nationwide, in an analyst note Thursday, CNN reported. “A weakening labor market and modestly higher tariff-induced inflation will constrain activity through year-end.”

The change in real GDP mostly reflects upward revisions to investment and consumer spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to government spending and an upward revision to imports, the BEA said.

Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, which is the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 1.9% in the second quarter, revised up 0.7% from the previous estimate.

The price index for gross domestic purchases rose 1.8% in the second quarter, revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 2%, revised down 0.1% from the earlier estimate. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index rose 2.5%, the same as estimated.

Crowds watch Chinese performers take part in a traditional Qing Dynasty ceremony, in which emperors prayed for good harvests and fortune, during a week-long series of events to mark the Chinese new year on the grounds of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing in 2012. According to a new Pew survey, China is the world’s undisputed top economic power to many of the survey’s respondents. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

July 15 (UPI) — A new Pew survey is suggesting that global viewpoints on China may be trending in a slightly more positive direction for the communist nation.

The Pew Research Center poll of 25 surveyed countries released Tuesday indicated that a large segment of the global population views China as the world’s undisputed top economic power.

Pew officials say the results contrast from 2023, the last time the question was posed.

It noted that shares of people with a favorite view on China jumped in the last year in 15 of the 25 countries part of the Pew survey.

The new results from spring’s survey outlined how a median 41% of polled adults spread out in the 25 countries believe the Chinese economy is the world’s greatest, while nearly the same number of 39% say it’s the United States with the greatest economy.

Pew noted that it’s the first time since 2020 that opinions on Chinese influence turned in a more positive light following historic, or near historic, lows in recorded data dating nearly 20 years.

Notably, the survey said that confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing in diplomatic affairs also went up in many of the countries surveyed.

But despite the shift, Xi and overall view of China “remain broadly negative,” according to Pew Research.

It says a 36% median of surveyed adults had a favorable Chinese view, while 54% had an unfavorable view. The survey added that 25% of people had confidence in the Chinese leader versus 68% who had little or no faith in Xi.

The research center pointed out that while Xi’s numbers did improve, it spurred an opposite reaction on outlooks on the United States and President Donald Trump.

“Today, international views of the two superpowers and (Trump and Xi) are closer than they have been at any point since 2020,” the survey results read in part.

In 12 countries spanning regions and income levels, China is viewed as the top global economic powerhouse. Results showed that it was the most common opinion in most of surveyed Europe by majorities in Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain, and by roughly half of adults in France, Hungary and Poland.

By contrast, survey respondents in nine countries say the United States is the better economy. Including polled Americans in Pew’s survey, a majority of respondents in Israel, Japan and South Korea agree on U.S. economic might with split feelings in Brazil, Kenya, the Netherlands and Britain.

Pew’s survey results arrived the same day it was revealed that China ended up bucking second quarter’s economic expectations in the face of the U.S. president’s global tariffs despite a slowdown in the Chinese economy.