The Durrells

[Reluctant Daddy]

 

 

Not sure if it will make its way to PBS anytime soon, but just finished watching a very sweet ITV show about the family of conservationist, Gerald Durrell. Good acting, wonderful cast, and a treat to see Leslie Caron in a role. Based on his autobiographical books that comprised the Corfu Trilogy. Well worth a watch if you have a chance.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Reluctant Daddy

[MrMiniver]

I caught this on ITV when it ran many months ago. Apparently completely inaccurate but totally delightful in every respect. It was ITV's most popular new show in ages and has been renewed for a second season. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[LoveNDino]

The Durrells in Corfu Season 2

Airs October 15th

 

Keeley Hawes (Upstairs Downstairs) stars as an intrepid widow who decamps from dreary England to a sun-dappled Greek island with her four recalcitrant children, ages 11 to 21, on this adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals and its two sequels.

 

...and who can forget the gorgeous Sven, who pinged on my gaydar early on.

 

And here is Garden of the Gods

A documentary with Gerald Durrell in Corfu 1967. It also featured Theodore Stephanides, and the fourteen-year-old Andreas Damaskinos (son of Corfu’s Director of Tourism). The ostensible reason for the film was Gerald’s promise to introduce the boy to the landscape and flora and fauna, as well as the history and folklore, of Corfu, suggestive of his own experiences at the same age, thirty years earlier.

 

[+ Gar1eth]

Is it too late to ask who the Durells are?

 

Gman

[LoveNDino]

@Gar1eth - it's rarely too late...

 

From Wikipedia

 

The Durrell family included:

 

Lawrence Samuel Durrell (1884–1928), an Anglo-Indian engineer, his wife Louisa Florence Durrell (1886–1964) and their children:

• Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990), a diplomat and writer, best known for writing The Alexandria Quartet, in addition to travel literature.
  
• Leslie Durrell (1918–1983)[1], the second eldest brother. He is described in Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy — My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods — as having interests in ballistics, hunting, and sailing, and according to his sister's book Whatever Happened to Margo?, was interested in painting.[2]
  
• Margaret Durrell (1920–2007), ran a boarding house in Bournemouth. Her account of that experience, Whatever Happened to Margo?, was published in 1995, about forty years after she wrote it.
  
• Gerald Durrell (1925–1995), a popular naturalist, conservationist, television host and author, credited with redefining the modern zoo. Founder of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
  
  • His first wife, Jacquie Durrell (b. 1929), author, naturalist and television host
    
  • His second wife, Lee McGeorge Durrell (b. 1949), author, naturalist and Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
    

Lawrence Samuel Durrell, Louisa Durrell and their children were all born in India during the British Raj as was Louisa Durrell's father. Following Lawrence Samuel Durrell's death in 1928, Mrs Durrell and her three younger children moved to England, where Lawrence had already been sent to be educated. In 1935 they moved to Corfu, following Lawrence's earlier move there with his wife Nancy. They remained in Corfu until 1939, when the outbreak of World War II forced most of them to return to England. Gerald's autobiographical Corfu Trilogy and several short stories record the family's time in Corfu, albeit in a heavily fictionalized way.

[TruthBTold]

I read somewhere (I course cannot recall where) that a second season will be produced for the series - if it has not already. It was shown on PBS here in Chicago.

[MartyB]

Thoroughly enjoyed this series and can't wait for the upcoming season 2. A real joy to watch.

[LoveNDino]

Another preview for the 2nd season..

 

[LoveNDino]

Fingers crossed this one is more like the first season...

[+ Avalon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Durrells

[Whitman]

I missed this thread and only started watching THE DURRELLS IN CORFU recently on the recommendation of a friend. I've now seen three episodes of the first season, and I'm liking it very much.

 

Three seasons are now available on Amazon Prime. Filming of a fourth season was reported to be mostly done as of late last year. (Exteriors are filmed on location; most interior scenes are filmed on soundstages back in the UK.)

 

Well worth a look.

[Oscar Not Wilde]

A great show that is very entertaining. And it has Josh O'Connor.

[MartyB]

A great show that is very entertaining. And it has Josh O'Connor.

It is a show that grows on you and is do different than the traditional Masterpiece Theater. So much fun