One By One Series Synopsis
In the late 1970's and early 1980's David Taylor had written a number of popular autobiographies based on his life as a travelling zoo vet. These books attracted the attention of the BBC and it wasn't long before a series was made with Dr Taylor and his partner Dr Andrew Greenwood acticg as advisors. This series was called "One By One" as in "I will treat each and every animal that comes along one by one regardless of species and in reference to Noah's Ark where he took the animal aboard Two by Two.
One By One was first shown early in 1984 on BBC One in a Sunday evening timeslot at 7.15pm. It was produced by Bill Sellars who had produced the BBC's "All Creatures Great and Small" based on the books by James Herriott.
It is not hard to see the reasoning behind the commissioning of One By One: the BBC had had amazing success with All Creatures Great and Small. The public loved the kitchen sink drama and they loved animals. All Creatures had had farm animals so what could be better than zoo animals? There was a series of books already written by a real life zoo vet they could use (those of David Taylor). A sure fire winner!
Well...not quite. Where All Creatures racked up more than 10 series and a film, One By One only produced three series and of those the third was shown two years after the second ended.
So where did it fall down? Well in truth it didn't. The stories were well written, the acting was good and the direction was fine. The problem was the decision by the BBC as to when and what time it was shown. All Creatures was much loved and had excellent viewing figures because it was a family show, shown in an early evening (about 6pm) timeslot on a Sunday i.e. when FAMILIES were together and watching TV. Remember these where the days when Channel 4 had only just started making only FOUR TV channels.
However a Tuesday evening slot of about 8pm meant that most children would be in bed or at least getting ready for bed. In addition after a hard days work most dads would want to watch whatever sport was on and the mums would watch soaps and dramas.
In addition where pets and farm animals are mostly predictable in what they will do, zoo animals . . . aren't. You can train a dog to stand still to be examined by an actor but you can't do that with a tiger or bear!
Most of the animals shown in the series were wild zoo animals that were untrained. To show someone examining them required either fortuitous "injuries" that could be easily remedied or the anaesthetising of the said animal. However, it was made abundantly clear to the BBC by Drs Taylor and Greenwod and the owners of the zoos themselves that the animals would only be anaesthetised for legitimate health reasons and any filming would be accommodated after the examinations were carried out. If there was an interesting "injury" or illness that required the vets involvement then that also could be filmed but only if Drs, Taylor and Greenwood were happy about it.
The exception to this rule were the animals provided by Amazing Animals. These were animals hand raised specifically for filming purposes. These ranged rom the Ttiger from the old Esso adverts to monkeys and birds that were seen in the studio based scenes.
Despite all that One By One did achieve some good viewing figures, but in the end they weren't enough to save it from cancellation which is a shame as it is a forgotten gem that deserves to shine. Even more so in the fact that it has only ever been repeated once on UK Gold in the early 1990's and has never been released on video or DVD.
So how did the series evolve? Well the first series detailed Donald's arrival at the surgery and his horror to find that he was expected to deal with the animals at the local zoo. He struggled to adjust to this new aspect of his working life but adjust he does and soon starts to enjoy it. All this against the backdrop of the late 1950's. The Great Northern Zoo was in reality Dudley Zoo in the West Midlands and was the majority of location fiming along with the private Heythrop Zoo owned by Jim Clubb who supplied the performing animals which he proceeded to do throughout the following series.
The second series was based in the 1960's and this time Donald is determined to make a success of exotic animal medicine and goes it alone. He is determined to change attitudes in the zoo world about vets and treatments. Again much use was made of Dudley Zoo, as well as Knowsley Safari Park in Knowsley, Lancashire which doubled as Manford Safari Park as did Windsor Safari Park (closed in 1992) for the dolphinarium scenes.
Series three is set in the late 60's and early 70's and shows how Donald is now jetsetting around the world to zoos far and wide while also struggling with relationships at home. Unfortunately Dudley Zoo was no longer used (due to the fictional closure of the Great Northern Zoo in series 2) and its successor was Chester Zoo. Knowsley was still used but to a lesser extent and much more overseas locations were used including Madrid Zoo.
David Taylor was renamed as Donald Turner and was played by Rob Heyland who is now a prolific TV and film writer. He was ably assisted by Sonia Graham who played Ethel, James Ellis of Z Cars fame as Paddy Ellis, Peter Gilmore as Ben Bishop and Peter Jeffrey as "Spider" Webb.
More details about each series can be found on the following pages:
One By One was first shown early in 1984 on BBC One in a Sunday evening timeslot at 7.15pm. It was produced by Bill Sellars who had produced the BBC's "All Creatures Great and Small" based on the books by James Herriott.
It is not hard to see the reasoning behind the commissioning of One By One: the BBC had had amazing success with All Creatures Great and Small. The public loved the kitchen sink drama and they loved animals. All Creatures had had farm animals so what could be better than zoo animals? There was a series of books already written by a real life zoo vet they could use (those of David Taylor). A sure fire winner!
Well...not quite. Where All Creatures racked up more than 10 series and a film, One By One only produced three series and of those the third was shown two years after the second ended.
So where did it fall down? Well in truth it didn't. The stories were well written, the acting was good and the direction was fine. The problem was the decision by the BBC as to when and what time it was shown. All Creatures was much loved and had excellent viewing figures because it was a family show, shown in an early evening (about 6pm) timeslot on a Sunday i.e. when FAMILIES were together and watching TV. Remember these where the days when Channel 4 had only just started making only FOUR TV channels.
However a Tuesday evening slot of about 8pm meant that most children would be in bed or at least getting ready for bed. In addition after a hard days work most dads would want to watch whatever sport was on and the mums would watch soaps and dramas.
In addition where pets and farm animals are mostly predictable in what they will do, zoo animals . . . aren't. You can train a dog to stand still to be examined by an actor but you can't do that with a tiger or bear!
Most of the animals shown in the series were wild zoo animals that were untrained. To show someone examining them required either fortuitous "injuries" that could be easily remedied or the anaesthetising of the said animal. However, it was made abundantly clear to the BBC by Drs Taylor and Greenwod and the owners of the zoos themselves that the animals would only be anaesthetised for legitimate health reasons and any filming would be accommodated after the examinations were carried out. If there was an interesting "injury" or illness that required the vets involvement then that also could be filmed but only if Drs, Taylor and Greenwood were happy about it.
The exception to this rule were the animals provided by Amazing Animals. These were animals hand raised specifically for filming purposes. These ranged rom the Ttiger from the old Esso adverts to monkeys and birds that were seen in the studio based scenes.
Despite all that One By One did achieve some good viewing figures, but in the end they weren't enough to save it from cancellation which is a shame as it is a forgotten gem that deserves to shine. Even more so in the fact that it has only ever been repeated once on UK Gold in the early 1990's and has never been released on video or DVD.
So how did the series evolve? Well the first series detailed Donald's arrival at the surgery and his horror to find that he was expected to deal with the animals at the local zoo. He struggled to adjust to this new aspect of his working life but adjust he does and soon starts to enjoy it. All this against the backdrop of the late 1950's. The Great Northern Zoo was in reality Dudley Zoo in the West Midlands and was the majority of location fiming along with the private Heythrop Zoo owned by Jim Clubb who supplied the performing animals which he proceeded to do throughout the following series.
The second series was based in the 1960's and this time Donald is determined to make a success of exotic animal medicine and goes it alone. He is determined to change attitudes in the zoo world about vets and treatments. Again much use was made of Dudley Zoo, as well as Knowsley Safari Park in Knowsley, Lancashire which doubled as Manford Safari Park as did Windsor Safari Park (closed in 1992) for the dolphinarium scenes.
Series three is set in the late 60's and early 70's and shows how Donald is now jetsetting around the world to zoos far and wide while also struggling with relationships at home. Unfortunately Dudley Zoo was no longer used (due to the fictional closure of the Great Northern Zoo in series 2) and its successor was Chester Zoo. Knowsley was still used but to a lesser extent and much more overseas locations were used including Madrid Zoo.
David Taylor was renamed as Donald Turner and was played by Rob Heyland who is now a prolific TV and film writer. He was ably assisted by Sonia Graham who played Ethel, James Ellis of Z Cars fame as Paddy Ellis, Peter Gilmore as Ben Bishop and Peter Jeffrey as "Spider" Webb.
More details about each series can be found on the following pages: