This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

 

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

In the three years since James Herriot first stepped off the bus and arrived in the Dales, Skeldale House’s veterinary practice has become a meticulously organized, well-oiled machine…well, sort of.

 

CLIP

Siegfried: James, have you— 

James: Siegfried! Sorry Mrs. Dobson.

Siegfried: James!

James: I was in the middle of treatment!

Siegfried: Ladies, ladies.

James: Hide in there!

Helen: No, sorry that must be an oversight. I’ll make sure we pay it as soon as possible. Thank you.

Mrs. Stokes: It’s a right mess in there.

 

For some time now, the administrative side of the business has been slipping. And with Tristan gone, Siegfried and James have had their hands full tending to the animals of Darrowby and the surrounding countryside. Their days are filled to the brim with appointments, farm callouts, and surgeries. Bookkeeping, wonky at the best of times, has fallen by the wayside. But not to worry, Siegfried has a plan.

 

CLIP

Miss Harbottle: Mr. Farnon.

Siegfried: Miss, um…

Miss Harbottle: Harbottle.

Siegfried: Yes, of course. I’m so sorry. I’ve been wrestling goats.

Miss Harbottle: They seem to have won.

Siegfried: Miss Harbottle and I met at the Farmers Union Dance last week.

Miss Harbottle: The foxtrot.

Simultaneously: Carpe Diem.

Miss Harbottle: You told me to call.

Siegfried: So I did!

Miss Harbottle: So I’m here…to discuss…your offer… 

 

Siegfried eventually remembers that at the dance, he asked Miss Harbottle to seize — well, if not the day, then at least the administrative tasks for the practice and get things back in order. 

 

CLIP

Miss Harbottle: You need someone to take over the administrative burden, leaving you free to concentrate on your veterinary work.

Siegfried: Miss Harbottle, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Miss Harbottle: I think that was what you said. And what I said was—

Siegfried: Bringing order to chaos is my speciality.

 

But will this new arrangement work out? Actor Neve McIntosh shares what makes the severe and orderly Miss Harbottle tick, her would-be romance with Siegfried Farnon, and what her long-term visions are for Skeldale House.   

 

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by All Creatures Great and Small star Neve McIntosh. Welcome.

Neve McIntosh: Hi there.

Jace Lacob: So, your character, Miss Harbottle, is introduced in episode two, and her introduction, it sets her up as a creature of order, and we’ll say severity, perhaps, amid the chaos of the practice. We’ve got goats running around and jumping on things, Siegfried and James are at each other’s throats. What did you make of that first scene as an initial introduction for Miss Harbottle?

Neve McIntosh: It was quite crazy. You’re suddenly sort of catapulted into this crazy scene. They’ve got the goats and everything, all the animals have got to be set first and then they can bring the humans in, or the other animals. But you’ve just got to be sort of patient, wait for your little bit, and then get your lines out in the right order. But yeah, it was lovely. I loved the dogs actually, running around. They were my favorite.

Jace Lacob: It’s clear that there is a history between Miss Harbottle and Siegfried; the foxtrot and inside reference to Carpe Diem. She gets described in Helen Raynor’s fantastic script as, “attractive with an air of authority”, though we’re never given her first name, even. How did you work to construct the character? What makes her tick?

Neve McIntosh: Ah, I suppose she thinks that she’s going to save Siegfried, you know, she’s tipping her hat at him. She’s on the market, shall we say. And so is he. And I think she thinks this is going to be one of the ways that she’s going to be indispensable to him. She’s going to wave her magic wand like a fairy godmother, make everything fine, and he’ll fall in love with her and ride off into the sunset on a tractor. So, I think that’s kind of where I started, but she’s also quite full of herself. So, yeah. It was good to get some of the humor out of that, especially in the script and some of the stuff there.

Jace Lacob: All Creatures Great and Small will often feature a character for a particular storyline. But this is, to my mind anyway, the first time an entire episode has revolved entirely around a new character. What was it like coming into All Creatures this far into the run, but having an entire episode focus on your character?

Neve McIntosh: All on me. I love it. It’s all about me, love. It’s lovely because someone’s going, oh great, who should we get? Is Neve interested? And you go up for that sort of thing. It’s really lovely actually. Because you want something as well to really get your teeth into, or I do anyway when I’m working. You want to get something to work on. So, yeah.

They’re such a well-oiled machine as well that when you come into it, you’re sort of picked up and gathered into their sort of speed and their way of moving, which is great. And everyone’s so lovely to help you do that because it’s a bit daunting. They’ve all been working together for so long. They’re so close. And you turn up going, oh, excuse me, but this one’s all about me, thanks. They were really sweet about it and very helpful in general. So yeah, you’ve just got to dive in.

Jace Lacob: So, given that you’re stepping into this cast four seasons in, as you say, that they’re very welcoming, but what was the cast like in terms of welcoming you to All Creatures?

Neve McIntosh: Oh, just fantastic. Just really lovely. So helpful. I now have a chili plant thanks to Sam West. He’d been potting out seeds and stuff. I got a little seedling and it’s still going strong. I got one really good-sized chili off of it. So, I’ll need to bring that in for the winter so I’ve still got chilies next year.

Jace Lacob: Make a curry maybe.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah! But everyone was just gorgeous. And there were actually people around that I’d worked with before, like Andy, the director. So that helps as well. It’s a great sort of family feeling, all the crew, all the cast. And there were opportunities for us to go out for dinners and go to the theater together and see some stuff. As well as great tips that if you wanted to go walking in the Dales, everyone has a sort of favorite walk, which I thought was really lovely. I didn’t get half of them done. Everyone was like, oh yeah, you should go there and try that! And I was like, yeah, I’ve got one weekend. I’ll have worn my feet down to stumps by the end of it, But, just absolutely lovely.

Jace Lacob: So, I want to take a step back. Growing up in Scotland, how familiar were you with All Creatures Great and Small ahead of time, the television series, and Alf Wight’s James Herriot books?

Neve McIntosh: Very, very. They were regular reading in my house. I think I read all of them after my parents had got them. They were just always there. The program was a regular. I can’t remember, it must have been like a Sunday night, I think, the original one, well, the first one. So, yeah, very.

Jace Lacob: And then I have to ask, is it true, Neve, that you perhaps wanted to become a vet because of All Creatures Great and Small?

Neve McIntosh: It is. It really is. Yeah, I think there must have been most of my generation possibly growing up, but I’ve always been horse daft, and I was working with horses or going in to help work with horses at stables and stuff. And yeah, and I kept thinking and daydreaming that I could be a horse doctor, or big animal doctor, but I was so rubbish at biology. I couldn’t go near any creature with a scalpel. So that kind of put those dreams to bed.

Jace Lacob: Miss Harbottle is brought in as a bookkeeper to whip the disorderly Skeldale House into shape, or at least that’s what she claims, as Siegfried seems to harbor no memory of having hired her. What does she make of Skeldale House with its rats and its animals and petty cash in a jug?

Neve McIntosh: She hates it. It’s anathema to her. She’s just like ahh! Everything has to be so orderly. She’s obviously what we call OCD now. She’s obviously got an edge of that; everything has to be right and in its right place. And that was a lot of fun doing that because just getting used to the fact of every tiny little thing. Some of that was not even caught on camera, just straightening pencils, and doing little things like that, which was quite fun to do.

Jace Lacob: She means well, though, but her methods instantly clash with how Siegfried and James run the practice. And she’s all modern efficiencies, and they’re all about these very traditional relationships with farmers. Does she go into this, we’ll call it maybe a devil’s pact, believing that she can actually transform this place into a model of efficiency?

Neve McIntosh: I think she does. I think she believes that anything is possible for her, you see. And I think she believes that it’s not going to be that bad. It’s not going to be that hard, surely. Then of course reality hits her like a frying pan in her face. So, there’s another reason underneath, she could see herself being the woman of Skeldale House. She wanted to basically be the Mrs. Siegfried Farnon of it, the lady of the house. But she gets a rude awakening.

Jace Lacob: But I mean, there is a palpable chemistry between Miss Harbottle and Siegfried. One that genuinely surprised James and Helen and also genuinely surprised me because it was there. And I did wonder whether her presence here has more to do with that chemistry and the foxtrotting Siegfried than her want for this position and whether she’s there due to finance or she’s there due to romance.

Neve McIntosh: Oh, I think she’s there for romance. I think she’s a romantic at heart. There is a kindness about her, but she just doesn’t really understand where she fits into the reality of the world. She thinks that she’s going to be swept off her feet and she’s going to do all the right things for Siegfried, and that means that that’s it, you’ll fall in love, and he’ll ask her to marry him. But as we know, that’s not the real world. She’s still a dreamer. It’s all frocks and gaiety and dances and things like that. Especially with the backdrop of the Second World War encroaching. I think there’s a lot to do with that.

Jace Lacob: She’s looking to hunker down.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah, she wants a place of safety as well.

Jace Lacob: You said earlier, these animals are sort of anathema to her. She loathes animals. She physically recoils in the presence of the goats, she finds Volonel utterly detestable.

Neve McIntosh: Oh, I know.

Jace Lacob: What did she think she was going to encounter working in a veterinary practice?

Neve McIntosh: I have no idea! I have no idea. Well, I think it feeds into the fact that she would slowly maybe edge them out when she had got her claws into Siegfried. But I have no idea what she thought she was getting herself into because she worked, she said it’s like a feed merchant, so maybe she just thought they would go out to the animals rather than bringing the animals in. That was quite hard actually, because I am an animal lover. I went around and cuddled all the animals that I could get my hands on afterwards, because I’d been quite mean to them.

Jace Lacob: I mean, you’re quite cruel to Volonel, I have to say.

Neve McIntosh: Oh, I was horrible!

Jace Lacob: How was Volonel the rat as a scene partner?

Neve McIntosh: Brilliant. There was one scene, and Sam’s got her out, and of course we just had to be so still and so patient because obviously continuity and he’s got a rat running around his head and across his chest and he was obviously brilliant. He works a lot, very, very closely with Volonel. So, it was gorgeous. But I stuck my finger at her one day and she nipped me. So, I was like, okay, okay. It’s method. It’s all method, love.

Jace Lacob: Very method, very method.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah, she’s very into the method, you know, obviously a lot of hatred for Miss Harbottle.

Jace Lacob: She has a knack for interrupting Siegfried at just the right moment or changing the subject at just the right moment. Do you see this as an intentional tactic on her part, or is that just who she is?

Neve McIntosh: I think in a sense it’s just who she is. She’s very used to being in charge and controlling, so it’s hard, isn’t it, because you don’t want her to then feel scheming if you’re saying that that’s that. But I think she just knows, in a sense, how to manage men in a way. I think there’s an element of that within her. I think she just gets her own way, and she just talks over folk. Because she knows better than anyone else, of course.

Jace Lacob: She’s also a professional woman at a time when there weren’t a lot of professional women operating in very much a man’s world. And she would have to be perhaps more assertive to have her voice heard.

Neve McIntosh: Well, exactly. Exactly. That was one of the things we discussed, Andy and I discussed about her, is that. Women get a bad rap sometimes when we do stand up for ourselves. And she definitely is someone who’s just learned how to get…it’s not that she’s getting what she wants, she’s getting what she knows is best for everyone. And yeah, you’ve got to be a bit brusque, and you’ve got to have the courage of your convictions to go, actually, no, this is the way it should be done. She’s definitely got that. It must have been very, very difficult in those days.

It makes me think of my mom. Even in the sixties, my mom had seen an advert for a job in the newspaper and it said “men only”. My mom went, “Aye, that’ll be right. I can do that.” And to their credit and hers, she went up for it, she got interviewed and she got the job because she was like, I’m not going to let anyone tell me I can’t do something just because I’m a woman. No, no, no. So, I had that sort of inspiration.

Jace Lacob: Wow. That’s amazing. The Skeldale House is a particular favorite of the cast, partially because of the way it’s built. It seems designed for French Farce. What was it like being on the Skeldale set, and what sort of direction did Andy Hay, with whom you’d previously worked, give you in terms of moving through that physical space?

Neve McIntosh: Well, because it’s just set out perfectly like a proper house, it’s very simple. What’s really clever about it is where they have windows and slightly overlapping ways of putting cameras to shoot through so that you can get a great continuous shot without a lot of resets. And they’ve even got that garden and yeah, it’s fantastic what they’ve built, what they’ve made for it.

Jace Lacob: I want to live in that house.

Neve McIntosh: I know, it’s gorgeous. It’s just such a shame that that beautiful sweeping staircase doesn’t go anywhere.

Jace Lacob: Anywhere!

Neve McIntosh: Spoilers! Whoops! Well, no, there’s a bit of a balcony up above, but no, that’s, that’s kind of it.

Jace Lacob: Bringing order to chaos is Miss Harbottle’s specialty. And she’s not wrong about the practice in a general sense, it’s poorly managed and things are indeed shambolic, as she says. But she’s also completely out of touch with why certain things are run the way that they are, not charging for appointments for a start. Why do you think she’s missing these key insights?

Neve McIntosh: As much as I love her, I think she lacks, what would be the word, a bit of compassion? It’s not all about cold, hard cash. That’s not really what efficiency needs to be at times. We get bogged down. But maybe that’s just the way that she’s been taught with previous jobs that just everything will work that way. It’s a shame, isn’t it? She doesn’t get it. She really doesn’t get it because it’s just so contrary to her idea of everything being shipshape and everything running properly.

Jace Lacob: I mean, she’s not wrong. Skeldale House is a business. They need money to operate. They can’t really be paid in jam or honey or sausages or crates of beer.

Neve McIntosh: Even though they are, yeah.

Jace Lacob: Even though that’s what they’re getting their payment in.

Neve McIntosh: Which, yeah, I’d do that.

Jace Lacob: That’d be great. I mean, sausages? Fantastic. Jam, honey? Absolutely.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah. Beer? Yeah.

Jace Lacob: Beer, yeah. Does she see this as a business that’s then maybe stuck in the past or does she fail to see the service that they’re providing to a farming community that maybe doesn’t have cash on hand?

Neve McIntosh: I think the second definitely. She doesn’t understand that they don’t have money. She doesn’t realize that barter is more of the way. It’s like when city folk come out into the countryside and they go, oh, really, that’s where eggs come from? Do you know what I mean? There’s a little bit of it like that.

 

MIDROLL

 

Jace Lacob: She makes a bad situation worse when she turns away Joe over his lack of inclination to pay for an appointment for his ferret in cash rather than in dead rabbits. I’m curious, what is behind her revulsion to Joe and to animals in general? Is it that they’re unpredictable, disorderly, and well, chaotic?

Neve McIntosh: Yeah, I think it’s the fact that they’re a bit chaotic, a bit smelly, dirty. I think there’s a bit of that. And with Joe as well, sadly, horrible thing to say. She’s a horrible snooty cow, for that aspect. So yes, I think it’s just, if you don’t have money, and a ferret. Who takes a ferret to a vet? I think she thinks maybe that a vet’s all nice pretty ponies and pretty puppies and dogs and kitty cats or something, not actual working animals like goats. I wonder what she would be like out in Wellies in a field. She’d just scream, I think.

Jace Lacob: She’s utterly charmed by Siegfried, if horrified by the way that the practice is being run. But she and James bond ever so slightly over the fact that they’re both Scottish here in the north of England. That initial calm with Jim descends into an argument over Joe and the appointment book.

 

CLIP

James: In veterinary practice, the animal comes first, always.

Miss Harbottle: In my book, obedience to the rules is the mother of all success.

 

Jace Lacob: Is this her Achilles heel, this need to obey every rule?

Neve McIntosh: I think so, definitely. Because that’s where she gets her whole idea of structure and order because it’s obeying the rules, and this is the way it should be. But also, he makes a very good point that that is a rule that should be followed, but she can’t quite move that into her rule book yet. And Mr. Herriot’s quite right, she doesn’t like that. He puts her right in her place and she doesn’t like it at all.

Jace Lacob: She catches Siegfried and James performing an operation on the ferret, which she believes undermined her authority.

 

CLIP

Miss Harbottle: You went behind my back. Mr. Farnon, you have undermined my authority.

Siegfried: An authority I should never have surrendered.

Miss Harbottle: You, I am sorry to say, Mr. Farnon are disorganized, erratic, and irresponsible.

Siegfried: And you are ignoring the fact that we are vets. We put animals before profit. Your ambition and talent are unquestioned Miss Harbottle. But this is not a place for you. I’m afraid I’ll have to let you go.

Miss Harbottle: You can’t sack me, Mr. Farnon.

Siegfried: Why not?

Miss Harbottle: Because I resign.

Siegfried: I see.

Miss Harbottle: Perhaps we should’ve left it at the foxtrot.

 

Jace Lacob: What do you make of the way she handles this here? Is it with sadness or with her dignity intact? How do you view this?

Neve McIntosh: Well, what I was trying to do in this scene was muster as much dignity, but without anyone having sympathy for her, because she was quite awful at times. So yes, it’s that mustering, someone mustering their dignity, but also, it’s the nicest way to sort of leave it between her and Siegfried so that neither of them lose face on it, in a sense. So, there’s a wee bit of grace in her bowing out there. Which is kind of nice that you can see that there’s a bit of humanity in there. I think she musters what dignity she has and moves on, cuts her losses.

Jace Lacob: If you were to give Ms. Harbottle a first name, what would it be?

Neve McIntosh: Well, we did discuss her first name, we were thinking about like a May, you know, M-A-Y, May Harbottle. And I said, it’d be funny if she was, because it was quite a popular name back in the day in Scotland, which was Euphemia. One of my aunties was a Euphemia, but she was always called Auntie Effie. And I did wonder, but I think she’s probably got just a nice, very simple, like May or, I can’t remember the one, because Andy came up with a name that I thought was great.

Jace Lacob: I want to think of her as sort of a Constance.

Neve McIntosh: Oh, that’s actually, that’s quite sexy though. Do you think? Constance.

Jace Lacob: Constance Harbottle.

Neve McIntosh: Constance. Oh, that’s got a nice ring to it though as well.

Jace Lacob: You might be one of the few guests on MASTERPIECE Studio who can say they have an action figure in their likeness. Granted, you sat for three hours at a time to be made up as Madame Vastra on Doctor Who, but what was the experience of filming Who like for you, and what is it like to have an action figure of yourself?

Neve McIntosh: It’s so cool! It’s so cool. I can’t tell you, because I’m the generation of Star Wars and all the action figures that we used to collect and play with in the 70s and into the 80s. So, I did the dweebiest thing. As soon as I knew that my figure was out, I went straight to the chain here, Forbidden Planet. Do you know it?

Jace Lacob: Of course. Yeah.

Neve McIntosh: Do you have it? Is it the same in America? I don’t know.

Jace Lacob: Not anymore now, sadly, but I’ve been to the Forbidden Planet.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah. So, I just went in because it’s a great place. I just went to buy myself as a lizard. And it was great. And of course, I’m just handing it over to the guy smiling. And of course, he had no idea who I was wondering who this mental bonkers woman is just grinning inanely at him. And I was like, aw, I didn’t get noticed, he didn’t recognize me. But that didn’t matter, it was so cool. And there’s even a little pop vinyl of me.

Jace Lacob: Oh.

Neve McIntosh: It’s a little mini pop vinyl. And also, I’m in one of the Lego games. So, there’s a Lego, well, a digital Lego Madame Vastra as well. I love it. And stuff like that, it’s right up my street. I was such, me and my brother, complete sci-fi geeks growing up.

Jace Lacob: As an actor, you are extremely prolific. You’re appearing in television and films on stage and video games like Diablo 4, audiobooks, audio drama. You’re in voice work for Road Safety Scotland. You’re everywhere. When you’re not working, what is it you’re doing? I hear that you’re a keen scuba diver. Is that true?

Neve McIntosh: When I’m away traveling, yes, I like to go diving. I love getting in the water and making bubbles, as they say. This past year I’ve not been able to get away. And I’m busy now until next spring. So, I’ll have to start planning another trip somewhere else to go, but yeah, I love it. Do you do anything like that? Have you tried it?

Jace Lacob: I’ve snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef.

Neve McIntosh: That’s cool.

Jace Lacob: But I’ve never actually done scuba diving though, I’m too frightened to go down that deep.

Neve McIntosh: That’s fair enough. Fair enough.

Jace Lacob: I’ve got a crazy question for you now.

Neve McIntosh: Oh god, go on.

Jace Lacob: So as someone who has read a lot of ad copy, I’m wondering, how would you approach a radio ad for Skeldale House if it were real? What sort of voice would you try to use to sell the practice?

Neve McIntosh: So not Miss Harbottle? No, she wouldn’t be able to do that. What sort? I don’t know. Welcome to Skeldale House. The Dales. I don’t know. Would it be more wistful? Here, in the heart of the Dales. Something like that. Because it wouldn’t be, here, Skeldale House, in the Dales! Come, get it! Get your vet done! I think it would have to be the more wistful one, wouldn’t it?

Jace Lacob: Yeah, no, the other is like an Irvine Welsh.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah, exactly. Choose a job. Choose a vet. Choose a career. Choose a dog.

Jace Lacob: A little Trainspotting humor.

Neve McIntosh: Little reference there.

Jace Lacob: Yeah. A little reference. So, you said you’re busy. Final question, what’s next for you? What’s on tap?

Neve McIntosh: What is on tap? Well, I’m going to be in the theater again. There is a fantastic play being put on in London called The Enfield Haunting, starring Catherine Tate, another Doctor Who connection, and David Threlfall, who, I don’t know if you know him from Shameless over here? Awesome.

Jace Lacob: Yes. The original Frank.

Neve McIntosh: Yeah. The original Frank Gallagher. He’s absolutely fantastic as well. And with some great new faces playing the children in it, and I turn up at the end. So, I’m really looking forward to doing some theater again. It will be really lovely. I play David’s wife in the piece, and it’s based on true events that happened in North London, in this house in Enfield, where they thought they had a poltergeist. So yeah, so we’re on in the West End in London until, yeah, so I’ll be busy right through to the spring which will be nice. It’s very nice to be busy over Christmas.

Jace Lacob: That sounds exciting and a bit scary. Spooky

Neve McIntosh: Yeah. Some of it. I don’t want to give spoilers. Yeah. Some of it’s very, very spooky.

Jace Lacob: Neve McIntosh, thank you so very much.

Neve McIntosh: You’re very, very welcome. Thank you so much.

 

Next time, we travel back to Victorian-era London and join intrepid private detective Eliza Scarlet and Detective Inspector William Wellington in Season Four of Miss Scarlet and the Duke. 

 

CLIP

Eliza: Everyone has a different opinion of my visits with you. Ivy thinks I should just sit and talk to you as if nothing has happened. Detective Fitzroy suggested reading aloud from a Russian novel, the title of which I cannot pronounce. And I suppose it might provoke you into sitting up and begging me to stop. And Mr. Potts. Mr. Potts was surprisingly thoughtful. He advised that as you are a man who despises a lot of chatter that I should merely sit with you. That would be company enough.   

 

Join us next Sunday as we sit down with writers — and spouses — Rachael New and Ben Edwards to discuss this new season.