‘All Creatures Great and Small’: Anna Madeley Breaks Down Finale, Audrey & Siegfried’s Romantic Future

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for the All Creatures Great and Small Season 5 finale, “All God’s Creatures.”]

She’s the down-to-earth den mother who holds Skeldale House together. But in the final episode of All Creatures Great and Small’s fifth season on PBS, Anna Madeley’s Audrey Hall was close to coming apart. Two weeks before Christmas 1941, with World War II raging in Europe and the Pacific, she learned that the British Royal Navy ship her son was serving on, the HMS Repulse, had been sunk by Japan. News reports said that about half the crew had perished, but it took an agonizing two weeks for Audrey to get word that Edward (Conor Deane) had survived.

From the time the Yorkshire housekeeper learned of the disaster until she received that joyous phone call from her son on Christmas morning, Madeley’s marvelously moving performance was the highlight of a holiday episode that wasn’t like any of the Masterpiece series’ previous ones. Although there were lighter moments — Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) trying to recruit carrier pigeons for the war effort, James and Helen (Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton) celebrating the first birthday of their son — no one was concerned with who would don the green Santa suit for the Christmas party. Instead of the usual merriment, there were lowered voices and attempts to keep Audrey hopeful as they saw the physical and emotional toll the wait was having on her.

Madeley praises the writing (Jamie Crichton scripted the episode) with helping her to conjure up Mrs. Hall’s restless state. “A lot of those episodes where there’s been emotional content, the content has been so engaging that it’s transported you into that emotion,” she told TV Insider. “It was exhausting to shoot, because every day was emotionally draining. On the other hand, we had an enormous amount of fun shooting it because we were having to make big, strong decisions.”

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The only human resident of Skeldale House who isn’t related to someone by blood or marriage, Audrey found solace caring for a little fox that had wandered into the animal shed. (It gave her companionship, and she didn’t have to make polite conversation when she didn’t feel like talking.) Then the creature showed up wounded, and Siegfried (Samuel West) wanted to put him to sleep. Mrs. Hall couldn’t stand the thought, and she couldn’t contain her tears. “He’s one of God’s creatures,” she cried. “Why should you get to decide if he lives or dies?” In the end, the senior vet attempted to save the animal, whose condition improved but remained uncertain.

For Madeley, who recently concluded a run in the Lillian Hellman play The Little Foxes in London, working with an actual little fox was a memorable experience. “It was very gentle, but you felt very aware that if you accidentally let go of it, it would disappear so fast,” she says. “You could feel the instinct.”

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Throughout the episode, viewers saw a different side to the woman who keeps the veterinary practice and household functioning. As Audrey tried to steady herself and stay calm, she kept her distance from the other Skeldale residents, even Helen, with whom she’s grown especially close. Madeley says she was struck by “the loneliness of the journey. Mrs. Hall always wants everyone at the table, she wants everyone to be together. Seeing her put through a moment in time where she can’t actually face people and take on board their needs was another layer in how deep it struck her.”

With the wait growing unbearable, Audrey sought answers when she visited Paddy (Elliot Franz), a crewmate of Edward’s who was sent home after his hand was crushed. “I think a bit of her just reaches a point where she needs to know, yes or no, so she seeks that from Paddy,” Madeley explains. “It’s a really hard thing to ask of this young man, but he is the person who is closest to the experience Edward would have had.” Like her son, Paddy worked in the engine room, located at the bottom of the ship, and Audrey was devastated when he told her that if Edward had been there when the Repulse sank, he wouldn’t have made it. She left his home in tears.

On the morning of December 25, however, Audrey cried for joy when Edward was able to phone to let her know that he was in a hospital in Singapore, wounded but alive. And later, as the gang assembled round the table for Christmas dinner, she thanked them for helping her endure the past couple of weeks, confessing, “I don’t think I’d have got through them without your kindness and your understanding.”

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It was a satisfying conclusion to a season that saw James and Tristan return to the fold, even though the war is far from over. As cast and crew gear up for their sixth go-round, which starts shooting soon, Madeley says she doesn’t know what’s in store for Audrey or Edward, or if Audrey and Siegfried’s much-discussed relationship will become romantic. And she’s in no hurry to find out about the latter.

“We get asked this quite a lot,” she adds with a laugh. “Sam said this to me the other day…. These are people who’ve had relationships before, they’re at a different time in their lives. There’s no mad rush to it, and there’s time for that relationship to evolve. I think we both as actors feel like we want it to evolve truthfully and take the time it takes.”

All Creatures Great and Small, Seasons 1-5, PBS app (with Passport) and PBS Masterpiece Prime Video channel