Pets and people are huggable

Be ready to relax. Settle in for Season 2 of All Creatures Great and Small, a Masterpiece seven-part series based on James Herriot’s stories of his own veterinary exploits among lovable Yorkshire characters—both human and animal. It’s every bit as winsome as the first season, one of the best television dramas last year.

What pleasure to be transported again to the pastoral English countryside of 1938 and enter the quaint fictional village of Darrowby, to reengage with Herriot (Nicholas Ralph) and all the other authentic-feeling personalities. Rumblings of World War II loom in the background.

Herriot continues to be smitten with a farmer’s daughter, Helen (Rachel Shenton), who was engaged to another man in the first season. He’s still working with his opinionated but kind veterinary surgeon partner Siegfried Farnon (Samuel West), though Herriot’s mother hopes Herriot will move back to Glasgow to take over a vet practice. And he’s still encouraging Farnon’s charming but rascally younger brother Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) to hone his vet skills, affecting many comedic encounters—like when Tristin incites an angry hog to ram a gate headfirst to burst a hematoma so he doesn’t have to lance it himself.

Playground Television

Season 2 (Sundays, 9 p.m. EST, PBS) resumes the first season’s same leisurely pace, endearing eccentrics, and realistic—­often funny—situations. Viewers will welcome back Tricki Woo, the pampered Pekinese of indulgent Mrs. Pumphrey. (Actress Patricia Hodge succeeds the late Diana Rigg in the role.) In the first episode, a blue budgie of blind Mrs. Tompkin dies as Tristan reaches to trim its beak. Reminiscent of a parent surreptitiously replacing a child’s dead goldfish with a look-alike, Tristan attempts to replace the bird with another—of a different color.

Characters and relationships blossom. Herriot grows in confidence in his veterinary skills, saying, “Every problem has a solution, I just need to find it.” He pursues Helen and deepens his fondness for the Yorkshire Dales—but has to make decisions about his affections. Tristin faces whether he will pursue the family practice. Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley), the empathetic and maternal keeper of Skeldale House’s vets and veterinary, plays an integral role as she contemplates life and relationships while caring for her surrogate family. She’s always ready with a calming cup of tea.

Enjoy this heartwarming series where neighbors accept each other’s quirks, people and animal bonds are strong, and outcomes aren’t predictable.