James Herriot's real-life children and marriage to secretary wife

All Creatures Great and Small is back on Channel 5 tonight, September 19, with Nicholas Ralph returning as Yorkshire vet, James Herriot alongside plenty more famous faces. Viewers will see him during his time in the RAF, while his wife Helen (Rachel Shenton) stays at Skeldale House with their new baby, Jimmy.

James would love nothing more than to be home with his new family, but he is aware he has an important duty to carry out as part of the war effort. Meanwhile Helen is trying to juggle farm life with caring for a new baby.

The series was inspired by the real working life of Alf Wight, who wrote a series of books under the pen name James Herriot about his time in the Dales. As is the case in the new series, the real James Herriot was married and had children.

He died in February 1995, aged 78, leaving behind his two children - Jim and Rosie. Both children have played a huge role in making sure adaptations of their father's stories have done him justice.

On November 5, 1941, James married Joan Catherine Anderson Danbury. Their son Jim was born two years later, in 1943, with Rosie arriving in 1947.

Jim, born James Alexander, also became a vet and was a partner at his father's practice. Rosie, born Rosemary, became a physician in general practice.

During his time with the Royal Air Force in 1942, James's wife Joan moved in with her parents.

Once James was discharged from the RAF on medical grounds, he joined her and they lived there until 1946.

After this, they moved to 23 Kirkgate, where his practice was founded.

Later, he moved with his wife to a house on Topcliffe Road, Thirsk, before settling down with his family in the village of Thirlby.

It was his wife who encouraged James to write a book about his life, as it had been something he had always wanted to do.

James's son Jim opened up about how his parents celebrated their wedding, telling Masterpiece: "They went to a little pub called The Wheatsheaf in a village called Carnaby, up in the Yorkshire Dales.

"My dad did some tuberculin testing while they were there. They couldn’t afford any time off. It was work all the time in those days from my father.

"He had a very hard life because he had hardly any money. And of course, the tuberculin testing was where you could earn decent money; the government paid for it.

"My mother would have been in trousers and wellies because she was standing in among all the cattle. She was taking down all the paperwork as my dad was doing the injecting."

All Creatures Great and Small airs tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm