In All Creatures Great and Small, James and Tristan do enlist to fight in the Second World War at the end of the third season, just as they did in real life.
The endearing friendship between Tristan and James on All Creatures Great and Small has become one of the best parts of the show.
Perhaps unfortunately, Tristan and James are so close that they even decided to enlist together at the end of the third season. The pair will probably go to war in the coming seasons of the show.
The James and Tristan ‘bromance’
James Herriot may be the main character in the Playground Entertainment, Channel 5, and PBS television show adaptation, as well as Alf Wright’s original series of books that this adaptation is based on.
But there is no denying that his unlikely friendship with Tristan Farnon often steals the show.
While Tristan is a reserved rule-follower, James is the complete opposite and he seems to live his entire life on a whim. As a result, the two often end up in outrageous, dangerous, and just plain hilarious situations when they are together.
All Creatures Great and Small: Do James and Tristan go to war?
The second season of All Creatures Great and Small ended on a high note when James’s character finally proposed to his long-time love-interest, Helen Alderson.
However, as relieved as many viewers of the show felt in this moment, the threat of the imminent Second World War, which would arrive in the next season of the show, could not be ignored.
As much as Callum Woodhouse, who plays Tristan on the show, tried to put fans at ease by insisting that Tristan and James will continue on as they always have in the third season, this was short-lived.
The sixth episode of the show’s third season opened on 1 September 1939, just hours before Britain declared war.
Early in the episode, James and Tristan are both on their own missions. James is stuck in the middle of a cow TB scandal and Tristan is dealing with the fact that Florence rejected his proposal.
However, when the news finally breaks that Britain has declared war on Germany, all of these other problems fade away and James is plagued by the idea that he should enlist even if he will not be forced to.
By the end of the episode, Tristan and James are both standing next to each other in the line to enlist and instead of the regular theme song at the end of the episode, the first few notes of “Taps” is played.
This indicates that James and Tristan will most likely go to war in the next season of the show, like their real-life counterparts did.
Did the real James Herriot go to war?
James Herriot is the pseudonym that author, Alf Wright, used for his own name when he wrote the All Creatures Great and Small series about his life.
Similarly to how it happens on the show, Wright felt compelled to enlist to the British Royal Air Force, even though his job as a veterinarian would have exempted him, when he hears about the bombings in the towns where he grew up.
Wright was deemed unfit to fly the combat aircraft in 1943, after he underwent a complicated surgery. he was discharged later in that same year before he ever saw real combat.
Did the real Tristan Farnon go to war?
The real Tristan Farnon, Wallace Brian Vaughan Sinclair, also really enlisted in the Royal Army the way his character did.
Later on, he joined the Army Veterinary Corps in 1944 before moving on to join the Ministry of Agriculture’s Sterility Advisory unit and after he had finished his studies.
Wallace Brian Vaughan Sinclair ultimately worked himself up to the top position as the head of the Veterinary Investigation Centre in Leeds.
What will happen in the next season of the show?
All Creatures Great and Small was already renewed for a fourth season in 2022 and fans of the show will likely only have to wait until the last quarter of the year for this season to start airing.
Since Wright only started serving in the Royal Air Force in 1942, it is likely that the fourth season of All Creatures Great and Small will continue with James and Tristan still in the Dales, even though they enlisted at the end of the third season.
However, with the war amplifying tensions all throughout Britain, it is likely that fans will see even more squabbles between Tristan and his older brother, Siegfried, in this next season.
Helen is also likely to be somewhat hostile towards James, who abandoned her by enlisting.