portrayal and said, "Alfred, this book is a real test of our friendship." (He never called Wight "Alf", represented in the books by Siegfried always referring to Herriot as "James" rather than "Jim".) One of the things he was unhappy about was the name Siegfried, a German name with Wagnerian echoes which, in the 1930s, would have stirred thoughts of Nazis. "Sinclair was so peeved by Wight’s portrayal that at one point he threatened to sue him". Things calmed down, however, and the pair continued to work together until they retired. Robert Hardy, who played the role of Siegfried Farnon in the BBC television series, went to visit Sinclair before playing him, and developed the character based upon his observations. However, Hardy reminisced that Sinclair hated the way that Hardy played him, and that, as Hardy claimed, Sinclair was wholly unaware of his own eccentricities. They subsequently became friends, Sinclair forgiving Hardy, and Hardy has said that "I always wished I'd known him before ... It would have helped me to perfect a much more interesting character." Alf Wight's son Jim wrote in his book The Real James Herriot that Sinclair's character in the novels was considerably toned down, and that Sinclair was even more eccentric than the Herriot books portrayed. In an interview in 2017, Jim Wight said that "One of the misconceptions [about Alf Wight] was that Sinclair ... was a tyrant and my father was a wimp. Because my father worked harder than Sinclair did, that is absolutely true ... But ... he supported Donald in many ways but he also earned more than Donald. He said to Donald, 'Look, I’m doing all the work. Everything that I do goes into my pocket and everything you do goes into yours.' That’s fair enough, isn’t it?" Death Sinclair killed himself by an overdose of barbiturate on 28 June 1995 at his home Southwoods Hall, near Thirsk, two weeks after the death of his wife Audrey (née Adamson), to whom he had been married for 53 years. His brother Brian (Tristan in the books) had died in 1988, and his friend and partner Alf Wight only four months previously in 1995. Sinclair was survived by a daughter, Jan, and a son, Alan. References Further reading External links Official James Herriot website (worldofjamesherriot.com) British veterinarians 1911 births 1995 suicides People from Thirsk Drug-related suicides in England Barbiturates-related deaths Alumni of