Helen Herriot

Helen Alderson is a farmer's daughter in the Yorkshire Dales, running her father's household with brisk competence since her mother's death. She is clever, self-possessed, and unimpressed by flattery, more at home mucking in on the farm than being courted. The new vet finds her hard to read and harder to forget.

Lynda Bellingham gives Helen a dry, unfussy warmth that never tips into whimsy, so her scenes with James play like real courtship rather than romantic set-pieces. The writing lets her be capable and funny on her own terms, a working woman first, which makes the slow pull between them feel earned rather than scripted.