John Alderton is someone who should've been a movie star - he was going to play Flashman in Richard Lester's film of that novel but it was postponed, and when the project was reactivated in 1974 (a different novel Royal Flash ) Malcolm McDowell got the gig.
Alderton had a warm boy next door persona, amiable but not sleazy. I'm watching a bunch of EMI Films and the male casting never seems right - it was Alderton who should've been in Percy's Progress, All Creatures Great and Small, Journey's End.
He got his chance when Simon Ward didn't return for this. He's better than Ward but the film isn't as good because there's no real reason to make it. The first had this strong emotional core with Ward arriving in Yorkshire and trying to establish himself and falling in love with Lisa Harrow. That's all done and dusted here.
Anthony Hopkins isn't back and while Colin Blakely is a perfectly fine substitute it doesn't help the sense of continuity. Neither does the fact there's no Tristram.
I think this just should've focused on the war and done war nostalgia - having a baby, dealing with war stuff. That would've been a point of difference.
Don't get me wrong the film is done with taste, skill and all that - it's just this feels like an episode of a TV show whereas the first movie, because it had Herriot's arrival and the romance, felt more like a film.
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