The Yorkshire Vet (Channel 5, 8pm)

TONIGHT we see 43-year-old Yorkshire vet Julian Norton battling to help a cow that is struggling to give birth to a massive calf during the latest look at life at Skeldale Veterinary Centre, the original surgery of vet Alf Wight, who is best known as James Herriot, author of All Creatures Great and Small.

When not helping livestock in need, Norton is an all-round man of action and a world record holder. He competes in triathlons, Iron Man contests and ski mountaineering, and has also represented Great Britain in the Duathlon and is unbeaten when it comes to 24- hour indoor rowing. Away from all that, he's married to Anne, has two sons and a Jack Russell terrier.

"It was quite daunting having cameras filming us during the past six months. Nobody at the practice really enjoys being the centre of attention, but that appears to be exactly what has happened. It was also very hard work – a bit like doing two jobs at once.

I would say that everything was portrayed with great accuracy and none of the cases were in anyway distorted; the episodes are an accurate insight into the working of our lovely practice.

"There are lots of things to love about my job: I am very lucky. It is great being able to work out what is wrong with my patients and then set them on the right track to recovery. It is endlessly satisfying, no matter what the animal is," says Norton, who admits he does find the long hours, weekends and on-call responsibilities quite difficult. "Running the practice is also a challenging part – fixing the animals is usually the easy bit," he jokes.

"Thirsk is a great place to live and work, a wonderful part of the country and a nice mix of rural life, but close to Leeds, York, the Dales, Moors, coast and so on. As a mixed practice vet in an area like this, you are really part of the community and a trip to town to the market, shops, swimming pool or taking the dog for a walk usually gets interrupted by a conversation about a patient," Norton says.

Asked about memorable cases he says: "Undoubtedly a border collie called Bobby. He had a very rare condition called cyclic neutropenia, which was very hard to diagnose. He became a great friend and, despite a very serious illness, was always pleased to see me at the clinic. It was a terrible day when his illness got the better of him and he needed to be put down."

On the world he works in, Norton thinks that anyone buying a pet should give it plenty of thought. "Getting a pet is a big commitment, for many years, during which time your life circumstances might change, as well as the animal’s. It is not much fun for a dog to be in the house all day if its owners are at work for eight hours during the day."

And the next Alf Wight should be advised that training to become a vet is difficult, competitive, takes a long time and incurs a lot of cost – university fees and student loans etc. "If you are passionate to do it, then you need to go for it, but only if you are 100 per cent determined," says Norton.

Britain's Biggest Adventures with Bear Grylls (ITV, 9pm)

OUR explorer goes to the Scottish Highlands on an adventure that takes him from the deepest point in Britain to its highest mountain, Ben Nevis. Along the way he goes in search of freshwater pearl mussels, one of the most endangered species in the world, heads for the hills to discover how the country's magnificent highlands were formed and hears about a plan to save an ancient forest under threat because the native Scots pine has been over-run by a non-native species. He also discovers how reindeer are making a comeback.