Had a great time listening to the ACGAS commentary for 3x07 “Be Prepared” featuring Peter Davison and director Christopher Barry. My personal highlights below.
1) About a shot of Tristan trying to light his cigarette:
Peter: “This is a desperate attempt by me to light a cigarette.”
Peter: “You’ll see that I completely fail, though at the end of this shot, I do pretend that I’ve litten — I lit it.”
Peter: “And this goes, this is a feature, actually, through this episode, you’ll see—“
Christopher, laughing: “Always that it failed!”
Peter: “Me failing to light cigarettes.” [Onscreen, Tristan seems to have succeeded.] “Look, see how I’ve managed to do it, I pretend it’s alight.”
Christopher, amused: “Had you just taken up smoking, or something?”
Peter: “Well, the thing was, when I went for the part, you see, they out— they said, do you smoke, it’s an essential part of Tristan’s character, was that he smoked, and I didn’t smoke, so, uh, I lied—“
Peter: “— and, uh, said that I smoked. Um, because I thought I wouldn’t get the job if I didn’t.”
Christopher, laughing: “I see.”
Peter: “And the fu— an interesting thing… [laughing] w-well, just looking at the scene, is w— after a couple of days of filming on this, uh, one of the prop guys came up to me and said, uh, ‘Hey, why do you smoke like a prat?’”
*Christopher bursts out laughing*
Peter: “I said, ‘Do I?’ He said, ‘Yeah!’ So I said, uh, I said, ‘Well, teach me how to smoke properly.’ So he took me aside one lunchtime and we went through this whole lunchtime teaching me how to smoke, with a cigarette further up me fingers and taking long, great draws of the cigarette. And then about, oh, about four days after that, Bill Sellars the producer came up and said, he took me aside, and rather seriously said, ‘Uh, Peter, why have you changed the way you smoke?’”
*Christopher chuckles lightly*
Peter: “And I said, ‘W-well ‘cause one of the prop guys said I smoked like a prat.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but we like you smoking like a prat.’”
Christopher, through laughter: “Was it more in character, smoking like a prat?”
Peter, laughing: “I had to go back to smoking like a prat.”
2) About Chris Timothy’s bad car accident and how from season 2 onwards he has a bit of a swagger to his gait because of his leg:
Christopher: “Well, that, that um… that accident left its mark on Chris for— I mean it’s still, you can see when he walks, he limps a bit.”
Peter: “Well, that’s interesting because I remember after he, you know, after he recovered, and he w— you’re right, he, he sort of, developed this kind of John Wayne’s walk—“
Peter: “— kind of like, swagger. But then — and that’s what Chris said of it himself [that it was like John Wayne] — and then, I remember looking back at the early filming before he broke his leg, and he still walked like John Wayne!”
3) About Tristan’s Fair Isle sweater vests:
Peter: “You know, I once, I once posed, uh, for a, for a, a knitting pattern, actually, for those, for the Fair Isle sweaters.”
Christopher, exhaling a laugh through his teeth: “Did you?”
Peter: “This knitting company came through and said, ‘Would you like to pose?’”
*both caught in laughter*
Christopher: “Oh, it’s probably worth millions to them! I hope they paid you something for it.”
Peter: “Well, I think there was a resurgence — there was a resurgence in, uh, in knitting patterns, because of Tristan.”
4) As Tristan puts up tape crossed over the windows for protection from shattered glass in the event of a bombing:
Christopher: “This takes me back, because, you know, my — m-my generation —“
Christopher: “We, we did all this, as a, as a boy. I can remember doing all that, filthy sticky paper; horrible taste!”
Peter: “Yeah. And that— you’re, you’re not kidding, and I know about that, because I was actually licking those to keep on the door.”
Peter: “It was disgusting.”
5) About working with Robert:
Peter: “It was, for me, it was an extraordinary experience, because I, you know, I- I hadn’t done that much really, and the extraordinary thing about Robert, is that h-he has a, a totally unique way of, of… of doing things. You know, most actors [unintelligible as Christopher speaks over him]—“
Peter: “— is rehearse, they kind of try and refine their performance down to exactly what they’re gonna do on the take. Well, he doesn’t do that!”
Christopher: “No, he, uh—“
Peter: “And you know, there’s an enormous difference between one take and another. He, sometimes he will fly on certain lines and then he’ll- uh, o-or he’ll under- undercut them.”
Peter: “And, and… to keep up with that was just an extraordinary learning experience.”
Christopher, with a chuckle: “Yes. It gives it a, remarkable spontaneity.”
Christopher: “And his energy, the way he comes out with some lines—“
Christopher: “— is quite prodigious.”
6) Peter mentions how the Farnon brothers do have that mutual respect for each other at the end of the day 💗
7) They spend a minute trying to remember whether the dog that was onscreen was one that got operated on for real later lol.
8) Peter: “It’s very distr-distressing to look at oneself all these years ago.”
Peter: “Well, you have this perception in your head that you haven’t changed.”
9) Peter: “The funny thing is, you know, when I, when I went for the part, I, I obviously immediately bought the book.”
Peter: “And was very depressed to read on page 2 I think, or 3, of the, the first book, that Tristan is described as being short and dark.”
Peter: “So I just thought there was no hope to it.”
Christopher, laughing: “No hope for you!”
Peter: “But, but the, the really odd thing is, that- that, you know, people used to come up over the years, and- and say to all of us, individually and together, that we were exactly how they imagined us when they read the book.”
Christopher, very quietly through a stifled laugh: “I see.”
Peter: “And yet, in the books, you know, uh- uh, James Herriot’s sort of Scottish—“
Peter, laughing: “— Siegfried is tall and thin with a mustache and Tristan is short and dark! So, we were — people’s actual ability to actually pick up things from the literature they’re reading… they honestly just, forgot!”
Christopher, laughing: “Yeah, they obviously were much happier with what they saw onscreen.”
10) Peter: “Well, it got slightly embarrassing by um, the time we made the last series. I think I was 40… and I was still having 18-year-old girlfriends.”
*Christopher busts out in a breathy laugh*
Peter: “Which was fine for me, but—“
Peter, laughing sheepishly: “— it was slightly, it was slightly embarrassing.”
11) Lots of laughing at comedic Siegfried moments, they were clearly getting a kick out of watching Robert play up the eccentricity.
12) A scene where Tris has to chase a cow around:
Peter: “Now, you see, I’m, I’m dicing with death here, aren’t I? Don’t you think?”
Peter: “Great bit of brave acting going on. Very very impressed.”
Christopher: “Very brave, yeah! Good thing it didn’t have any horns, or… [laughing] it could have—!”
Peter: “In a, in a later scene— or, a later- in a later series, we uh, Chris and I had to wrestle a bullock to the ground.”
Peter: “Uh, and that was very… hairy.”
Christopher: “Very hairy! I say, yeah.”
Peter: “And there were a couple of hairy times; I remember there was one scene we were doing — uh, it wasn’t you, you were not the director — but we were filming this scene in a, in a bit with a horse. And the director had got Ch- both Chris and I, inside this horse box, and—“
Peter: “— inside this horse box, and uh, examining the back of the horse, because that’s how you look best on camera.”
Peter: “And we’d been doing this for about, uh, 20 minutes, and the horse was getting, the horse had to be kind of agitated, so they were agitating the horse by walking a mare up and down outside the stable.”
Christopher, wheezing: “Oh, Go(sh)!”
Peter: “And Chris and I were in this stable, and uh, Robert Hardy, who, you know, he’s a horseman—“
Peter: “— arrived in the set, and just said, ‘Get them out of there NOW!’ ‘Cause no one had any idea—“
Christopher: “He- he could see the danger!”
Peter: “— that we were just, we were one kick away from—“
Peter: “— you know, our legs being broken, or—“
Christopher: “Extermination!”
Peter: “— or worse. Yes!”
13) Peter hums along to the bit of comedic music playing at the end of a scene and said how it’s basically his own little theme music because it’s always following Tristan around.
14) Peter talks about Donald Sinclair:
Peter, chuckling at Siegfried during a scene: “This was very similar to the, the real, um, Siegfried and Tristan — who, uh, were not involved in the series, they were around—“
Peter: “— at the time, and, and… James Herriot, Alf Wight—“
Peter: “— would come out and visit once or twice.”
Peter: “And we were invited back to their, um, house once.”
Christopher: “Oh, were you?!”
Peter: “Uh, yeah, and um, T-Tristan was there, Brian, uh, was there, and really intriguing — y-you absolutely understood, the moment you saw them together, what… you know, the relationship between the two. He was still haranguing, uh—“
Christopher, laughing: “Really?”
Peter: “— you know, after all these years, uh, the- the- the real Tristan. Donald Sinclair [was doing this].”
Christopher: “How wonderful.”
Peter: “Um, and there was a very similar thing where he suddenly decided— I-I, uh, I was asked what I’d like for tea.”
Peter: “And uh, I-I said, um, I’d like- could- you haven’t got any honey? And Donald Sinclair said, ‘You don’t have honey for tea! For goodness sake, who eats honey for tea?! That’s for breakfast!’”
Peter: “Uh, so I didn’t get honey. And then about five minutes later, um, he suddenly left the room, and he came back — without any, say-saying anything — with honey on his bread, he himself.”
15) In the sequence where James tries to corral the upset sow, Chris is actually just prodding the camera because the real sow wasn’t remotely threatening and they couldn’t pretend she was doing anything.
16) About the procedure for the dog with the buttons sewn onto his ear to force fluid to get distributed evenly rather than building up in lumps:
Christopher: “Now, this is the famous operation.”
Peter: “This is a very interesting scene, because he is actually, he is- is actually doing what he looks like he’s doing here. He’s actually squeezing the blood out of this, uh, poor dog’s ear… and I have to do this scene!”
Christopher: “Yes! Eugh!”
Peter: “So, we rehearsed this for ten, t-t- for ten days — uh, of course, just pretending—“
Christopher, acknowledging in amusement: “Pretending.”
Peter: “— the operation. When we come to the actual studio, Eddie Straiton who was our vet advisor, says, ‘I’ve got a dog with exactly th-the thing that’s meant to be wrong with it.’ [laughing] So poor Chris…! Chris is doing all the work, but I had to do all the talking. And after rehearsing ten days I find, I suddenly find myself looking at blood being squeezed out of a real dog’s ear. And Chris now has to actually, in theory has to do the uh, the- the sewing up. I think in the end—“
Christopher: “No, I think—“
Peter: “— he couldn’t quite manage to, to do it, because it was a bit too- too much.”
Christopher: “No, we did— I know this scene was pre-recorded—“
Christopher: “— um, the operation part of it—“
Christopher: “— and then cut in later. Um, and Eddie Straiton’s, I think Eddie Straiton’s hands are doing some of it.”
Peter: “Yeah, I’m sure, yeah. Quite sure.”
Christopher: “But um, he—“
Peter: “But I do remember, I was definitely looking at him doing the scene when the blood was being squeezed out, actually squeezing… oooh...”
Christopher: “Yeah; oh, I know! Yeah, it… feeling quite queasy, no doubt!” [laughing]
Peter: “Well, yeah, yeah! Just… not really concentrating on what I’m saying, so, I, I’m just apologizing for the acting.”
17) Christopher Barry had a shirt (I’m presuming something that was given among the crew members of the show) with a little cartoon of a man shoving his arm up a cow.
18) Siegfried to Tristan while they observe this real procedure: “This is the stuff of real life!”
Peter, muttering quietly: “He’s dead right there.”
19) Some discussion about how they’d find real animals who had the problems they needed for the story and genuinely used and took care of those animals and made the BBC pay for it.
20) While talking about using fake alcohol for drinking scenes:
Peter: “In one series there was one magical bit where at the end of the, uh, the- the series, we got a F- uh, um, a hamper from Mrs. Pumphrey, you know, the- from the character—“
Peter: “And th-the only way they could do it was they got a real, uh, they got a real hamper from Fortnum’s, which cost an enormous amount of money. And Chris had to open a bottle, I think it was a bottle of brandy or something, at the end of it. Uh, w- and they put in a fake bottle of brandy for him to open, a-amo-among the other stuff.”
Peter: “And uh, we got to the scene and Chris op- he reached in and he pulled out the wrong bottle of brandy.”
Peter: “And I knew it was the wrong bottle of brandy, and I don’t think Chris did, and I was sort of thinking, ‘What the heck do we do now?’ ‘Cause the bottle of brandy cost about an hundred and fifty quid or something like that.”
*Christopher is losing it*
Peter: “Very, very expensive bottle of brandy. And I, I just thought, well I either stop this scene now or I just let him do it, and so I just thought, I’ll let him do it.” [laughing]
Christopher, dying: “Let him do it!”
Peter: “And so he opened the wrong bottle of brandy.”
Christopher: “It must have been a shock when you actually had to drink it!”
Peter: “Well, we didn’t- well, I think we, I don’t know, I think we just did a cheers and that was the end of it—“
Christopher: “And that was the cut.”
Peter: “— it was the end of an episode.”
Christopher: “Oh.” [chuckles]
Peter: “The bottle w-was later taken to the props department and disappeared in about one minute.”
Christopher: “I bet.” [laughing]
21) Peter catching himself looking a little on edge during a scene with Siegfried because he never knew how Robert was going to play it and how he’d have to react:
Peter, laughing: “He’s got me on- I’m on a tightrope here with, [pausing to wheeze], with Robert because I don’t know—“
Christopher: “— how it’s gonna go!”
Peter: “— which time to say a line, whether he’s gonna finish it, if he’s gonna shoot…!” [snaps fingers like a gun being shot at himself]
Christopher, amused: “Yes. It’s wonderful byplay, he’s really got you- you’re like a trout on the end of a line, aren’t you?”
Christopher: “He’s playing you.”
Christopher: “Absolutely playing you.”
22) About being asked to speak at a fête around the time that he was playing Tristan:
Peter: “And I had no idea, ah, what I was going to say because I was just, y-you know, a little shy actor, me. And someone just said, ‘Well just, just be Tristan.’ So I just went among these- and it was actually brilliant because I just got up and I said, ‘Um, well, there’s this happening in the fête, and I’ll be in the beer tent.’”
Peter: “I’m thankful, that was fantastic—“
Christopher: “Wonderful, yeah.”
Peter: “So you have this kind of alt- alter ego which you can fall back on a bit.”
Christopher: “Part of an actor’s stock and trade.”
Peter: “Well, it did- well it’s just useful for, for public consumption, you know, that- that- that sort of thing.”
Christopher, laughing: “Yes.”
Peter: “But I would a- I was always offered after this, uh, beer adverts or beer commercials, you know, and all that.”
Peter: “I’d always have to down pints of beer, and I can’t stand beer.”
Christopher: “Oh de— you’re not a beer drinker?”
Christopher: “Oh, tough, tough. Well, you much preferred the colored water when it was in, in a scene.”
Peter: “Oh, I much prefer the colored water, yeah. Absolutely. That’s a great disappointment to a lot of people who’ll always be inviting me down to the pub for a pint; I’ll say, ‘No, a Diet Coke or mineral water, please.’”
23) Robert being a bit Siegfried when having to be fitted for a fancy dinner outfit for this episode, both meticulous about accurate details:
Christopher: “And I was sent for by Tim one evening, um… he was being fitted, and I got down there and he was in a terrible state with Kathy Ayerst—“
Christopher: “— who was the des- the costume designer, because it wasn’t right. And I had to try and sort of adjudicate, which is terribly difficult because uh, he’s got to wear this wretched thing the following day on location and uh, he wasn’t happy and she wasn’t happy and… I can’t remember how I got out of it, I probably just scuttled out with my tail between my legs.”
Christopher, laughing: “Anyway, it’s- it’s not apparent that he was unhappy with it onscreen!”
Peter: “Well, he, I think he’s, he’s very, he probably is quite particular; I think, w-, I think, indeed, a couple of his jackets he wears in the series are his own.” [trails off mumbling]
Christopher: “Yes; very likely, I mean, they would be the best fit that he could possibly get and uh… but h-he, he- he possibly… kn-knew more, and knows more, about uh, how a man should be dressed for such an occasion than Kathy Ayerst.”
Peter: “Absolutely, yeah.”
Christopher: “And I think that was his point, that it wasn’t right, for the occasion.”
Peter: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
24) When talking about the show’s popularity when it was on:
Peter: “And t-to its credit, I mean, the fa- I think the farmers and other people who live in the country, all, you know, they weren’t critical of the series, they used to love the series; in fact I heard from my uncle who lives in Ludlow—“
Peter: “— that they used to, um, sit around an-and-and, try and guess what was wrong with any particular animal in any bit of the story.”
Peter, laughing: “T-to see, see if they could—“
Christopher, laughing: “To see if they were right!”
Peter: “It was, it was a farmer’s Whodunnit?, All Creatures.”
Peter: “I was always such a loser in love, actually, wasn’t I?”
Peter: “I- I never, I mean, in this series, I was never successful at all! I h-, I kept, I keep thinking of myself as a sort of womanizer but actually I’m a miserable failure and every single time—“
Peter: “— I have a girlfriend, s-something goes horribly wrong.”
Christopher: “It always gets thwarted!”
26) Noting how the animal looks pretty darn okay for what supposedly happened to it lol.
27) When their evening out has been completely derailed:
Peter: “This is a-a-a continuing feature of th-the, with uh, the series or the stories, them going out to places and never quite getting there. I- I seem to remember that happening quite a few times.”
Christopher: “Yeah.” [laughing]
Peter: “Always going out for an evening out and it would always be where they ended up covered in blood—“
Christopher: “— end up in disaster, yeah.”
28) When Tristan was trying to check the knee of girlfriend #400 after she took a tumble — which was his fault, so she promptly moved away in irritation and he only had a split second to touch her leg, but he seemed enamored in that split second:
Peter, laughing: “A chance to touch a knee! It’s the height of passion!”
Christopher: “It’s as far as you got, I should imagine!”
29) Peter being amused that she didn’t hit him quite hard enough with her purse to merit the intensely pained reaction he gave.
30) When Siegfried is doing surgery in his fancy white evening outfit and getting dog blood on it:
Peter: “You only ever put on, uh, um, evening dress in this series to get it s-, r-ruined, I-, I—“
Christopher, laughing: “Obviously!”
Peter: “I-, I-, I did it once w-, and I ended up with my arm up a cow—”
Christopher: “Up a cow, in evening dress.”
Peter: “— uh, in evening dress, yes.”
31) Commentary that was amusing in hindsight about how you couldn’t make this show today lol.
32) Talking about how Christie would always get up and leave when the cameras started rolling and they started acting:
Peter: “I think it was just scary to see your owner suddenly behave in a rather irrational way. ‘Not like master at all!’”
33) Awww. And then lol. Yeah, that hadn’t occurred to me, but he’s right.
Christopher: “You must have really got to live with this set so much that it, it was almost like home to you.”
Peter: “It was, yeah. Oh, I can still remember the geography exactly, of the set.”
Peter: “And how it didn’t quite make sense, actually, ‘cause if you went—“
Christopher, with a laugh: “No.”
Peter: “— if you went into the kitchen and walked into the, the larder, you should in theory have been in the waiting room.”
34) After a shot of a rather dejected looking Tristan:
Peter: “I used to get lots of letters from old ladies wanting to mother me, look after me.”
Christopher, exhaling a laugh: “Only, only old ladies?”
Peter: “And indeed, and indeed knit me some Fair… [realizes what Christopher said] I… [finishes his sentence first] … Fair Isle sweaters. [laughing about the old ladies comment] Yes, I used to get letters from young, young girls, but they always would write to me because they wanted to be vets.”
Sad that there’s only one commentary left. They really ought to have done more. But I absolutely love what we have and hearing them talk about it.
