Inside the life of All Creatures star Nicholas Ralph from childhood to hidden talent

All Creatures Great and Small returns to Channel 5 for a fifth season later this month and Nicholas Ralph stars as renowned Yorkshire vet, James Herriot. In the new season, James is continuing his work with the Royal Air Force as the war effort continues.

The Scottish actor, who was born in 1990, had an interesting start to his life as he was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He said he would love to go back someday, telling Masterpiece: "I love Cape Town, so I’d love to get out there. It’s just wonderful, beautiful.

"You get to see Table Mountain from every angle, wonderful golf courses, wonderful wine, the vineyards. So, I like it there." He grew up in Nairn, a town in the Scottish Highlands, but also spent some time as a teenager in America.

He has family in Georgia and Texas and said he was very fortunate to be able to travel out there, but he has not been since he was 15 years old. Nicholas had an exciting childhood playing association football for Ross County.

He played from his primary school years until he was 15, before moving on to the Nairn County under-19s. Explaining why he missed football, he said: "The one thing that I loved and which I really missed when I stopped playing competitive football—because it’s a team sport—was the comradery.

"Everyone bringing something to the party, as it were, and that feeling of the togetherness.

"More often than not, I was captain of the football team, as well, growing up, and I loved that and it’s something I really missed."

The star studied drama at Inverness College and then, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Just two years after graduating, he got the audition for All Creatures Great and Small.

Before this, he had only ever taken on stage roles with the Royal Conservatoire, and had experience in radio.

For his role as the renowned rural vet, Nicholas required training in vet procedures to make sure his performance was as accurate as possible.

He worked closely with on-set vet adviser Andy Barrett, learning how to approach animals and use equipment.

He did, however, already have some previous experience with livestock from his time living in Scotland.

Nicholas told Town and Country: "I grew up in a small town in the Highlands of Scotland, and where we lived, there was our back garden, a fence, and then a field that was always full of cows and sheep.

"So I was a bit more used to being around farm animals than maybe some of the other cast."

All Creatures Great and Small returns to Channel 5 on September 19