TWO York creatives are hoping to cheer people up during the virus lockdown and raise money for the NHS with the early release of a new podcast, 'Voices from Herriot Country'.

Helen Leavey and Simon Collins decided last summer to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of a book about the life of a rural Yorkshire vet by author James Herriot, aka Alf Wight - stories which later appeared on TV in the hugely popular BBC series 'All Creatures Great and Small,'

Helen said they set out to find, record and photograph Yorkshire characters who could have stepped from the pages of a Herriot book.

She said several of their interviewees personally knew Alf Wight, who grew up in Glasgow but lived and worked in and around Thirsk for more than five decades after arriving there in 1940.

“Voices from Herriot Country has been such a lovely project to work on, chatting to fascinating people in magical places with, naturally, lots of cups of tea and a fair few scones,” she said.

“It was wonderful to find the spirit of Herriot lives on. It’s clear there are still plenty of ‘characters’ around and we’re looking forward to meeting many more.”

She said they originally planned to release all of the podcast a little later but then found themselves in lockdown with some extra time on their hands - when not homeschooling - and “the desire to put some smiles on some faces,” as Simon put it

They decided to push out three episodes quickly, with more to follow as soon as possible.Helen said they hoped listeners in Britain who enjoyed the podcast would make a donation to the NHS while those abroad would donate to a medical facility of their choice.

Helen said episode one featured 85-year-old farmer Chris Greensit, whose family’s vets were Alf Wight and Donald Sinclair- James Herriot and Siegfried Farnon in the Herriot books.

“Chris, who's never been abroad and only been to London once, still has some cattle and crops but takes life easier since the death of his brother, although he's still got "t'lad" - Brian, in his 60s - helping him out,” she said. “He also tells a gripping tale of finding a huge hoard of old coins on his farm, buried for more than 300 years.

“In episode two, listeners meet Rose Dawson, a pensioner with a passion for helping injured and sick owls; she now has more than 50 in her garden.

“She was first introduced to the bird of prey by the Herriot vets in the 1980s.”

Helen said the podcast, and more information about the characters involved, was on Facebook - search for ‘Voices from Herriot Country.’

“The audio will be on Itunes and Spotify soon but is available now on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-127319777/sets/voices-of-herriot-country. To donate to the NHS (for masks): https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/masks4nhsheroes#start.”