Loosely based on conservationist Gerald Durrell’s best-selling trio of memoirs, The Durrells in Corfu follows the family’s chaotic adventures after a move to the Greek island in the 1930s. Keeley Hawes returns as Durrell family matriarch Louisa, alongside her fictional brood played by Josh O’Connor (Larry), Callum Woodhouse (Leslie), Daisy Waterstone (Margo) and Milo Parker (Gerry).    Editor's Note:  The show returns on September 30. It’ll once again be paired with the return of popular period drama Poldark, making for a full night of great television all around.       

Foreword By Writer, Simon Nye

Each episode features at least something from Gerald Durrell’s fabulous trilogy. The charismatic Indian guest Prince Jeejeebuoy, Gerry’s beloved wall of insects, Margo’s hobby sculpting soap, Leslie’s burglar-shooting system, Larry’s artist visitors including a frequently naked Henry Miller, and so on. I’ve taken other new elements from historical truth, which Gerald left out of his already highly fictionalised reminiscences. Theo Stephanides, when not being a naturalist-poet-raconteur-polymath, was a radiographer, bringing much needed medical help to the island. Margo agrees to work with him, largely because she likes to see men with their shirts off. Leslie was, in reality, a part-time member of the Corfu police force, despite or perhaps because of his fondness for shooting anything that moves, so in this series he is seen on the beat.

The political situation in Greece, though too chaotic to be as oppressive as in Germany or Italy, was deeply reactionary. As the only gay goat herder on the island, arguably, Sven falls foul of the new moral conservatism, and needs the politically engaged Larry to campaign passionately but ineptly to get him out of prison. One of the main spines of the third series is another element I’ve explored from real life —Leslie’s painful passage to maturity as he falls in love, several times concurrently in episode one. He goes on to discover that sex can have serious consequences, even if, as he protests, “We only did it one and a half times …”

Louisa’s relationship with Spiros forms the other spine. The attraction is potent but inconvenient — Louisa is in no mood for love after the trouble it's caused her since being on the island, and Spiros is married with children. But this series sees him and Louisa drift closer and closer together…

But the show remains light on its feet, I hope. Louisa is happy, or would be if she could just tweak her children to be how she wants them. An episode involving a “perfect” Italian family makes her realise she could do a lot worse. And we have thrown ourselves into the glorious Mediterranean countryside again. Gerry’s perpetual hunt for new and more exotic animals takes him out and about — experimenting humanely with flamingos, tracking down baby vultures, and finding a girlfriend who’s as passionate about animals as he is.

The wildlife remains a joy — to look at if not to film. It turns out that flamingos are rather highly strung, and make the pelicans look positively professional. We all fell in love with the sloth, and unlike with the other creatures there was no danger that he would make a dash for it — fortunately as we filmed him in England and he would quickly have found himself on notoriously ungulate-averse Ealing Broadway.

We hope The Durrells will continue to find a large audience, despite its blatant lack of heavy duty crime and procedural bleakness. It is family viewing but hopefully with a bit of surprise and nuance. Come for the sunshine and the animals, stay for the brilliant acting, the reminder that we are all Europeans, and a closing episode featuring a contortionist, magic, and the climax of at least two heartrending love stories. 

An Interview With Keeley Hawes who plays Louisa Durrell

How do you reflect back on making this third series?

“There’s always a sense of achievement. This time we’ve filmed eight episodes for the first time, instead of six. So along with the tiredness is a great sense of satisfaction that you have made eight hours of television. It’s a lot. And when it’s as good as The Durrells is - which I believe it is - that’s really nice.

“Particularly when you’re back for a third series. You know people like it and everyone has worked out what works and what doesn’t work. I feel we’re all in very capable hands with everyone who makes The Durrells. So, hopefully, it’s just got bigger and better and people will like it.”

Where do we find Louisa when we meet The Durrells again?

“Louisa has decided to give up her search for love and concentrate on herself and the children. Which is not a bad idea judging by her previous involvement with men. The family is still in financial dire straits, but Larry is earning a little bit of money with his writing and some money is trickling in from the market. Even so, they all need to get jobs. Then Aunt Hermione, played by the brilliant Barbara Flynn, comes to visit.”

What is it like returning to Corfu to film another series?

“It’s a second home for us now. When we return to Corfu we don’t need any time at all to get back into the swing of things. Everyone is so brilliant there that we are immediately back to being The Durrells and it all just starts rolling again.

“We filmed earlier in the year this time and so we didn’t really have any rain at all. It was springtime and beautiful. I would advise anybody thinking of going to Corfu to go at that time of the year because it’s just gorgeous.”

How do people on the island react to the production?

“People are always very pleased to see us. And now the series has been going for a few years, when people see the production trucks, they know exactly what it is. There’s lots of shouts of, ‘Oh Mrs. Durrell, Mrs. Durrell!’ It’s just very nice. Always a really positive thing.

“Sometimes people have been looking for us. I went to Corfu Airport to go home for the weekend and was queueing to get on the plane when a lady came up to me with her little girl and said, ‘We’ve been searching for you for 10 days and now we’ve found you!’

“I was still fully done up as Louisa Durrell with my hair and make-up because it had been a mad rush to the airport, so that was good for them. People look for our locations, the house and so on, which is very flattering.”

Louisa returns to England for a visit. Tell us about that?

“Louisa ends up having an adventure in London, which was great fun to film. We filmed in Richmond, Surrey, and it rained non-stop for 12 hours. They had booked rain machines but we didn’t really need them. “It was a little odd to be back in England filming as this character, but good to take us back to the roots of this family and it was a lovely contrast to the sunshine of Corfu. As much as we love being in Greece, it was good to have that time at home as well.”

We meet the American writer Henry Miller. Is that inspired by real life?

“Larry Durrell knew Henry Miller and invited him to Greece. In the new series we end up with a naked Henry Miller in Corfu. Trevor White, who plays Henry, took off all of his clothes and just went for it. There was nothing shy about it, which is great. It makes it less awkward for everyone and we were all very grown up about it. It’s very funny.” 

How do Louisa and Spiros get on in this series?

“We go a bit deeper into their relationship in this series, which is very exciting and easy to play because Alexis Georgoulis, who plays Spiros, is brilliant. We get on so well and really enjoy those scenes.

“It’s a bittersweet thing. Louisa and Spiros would be so good together. They’re both wonderful people but Louisa would never go there because he’s married with a couple of children. It’s 1937 and a very different time. But wait and see what happens.

“We also visit Spiros’ house for the first time in this series. That’s when we get to see a completely different side of him. Louisa has never been to his house and I think people will be very interested in that. It expands the world of The Durrells beyond our house. We’ve been to Sven’s house, to town, the doctor’s and other various locations, but it’s great to go into other characters’ houses.”

How does Louisa react to another foreign family arriving in Corfu? “Louisa’s nose is put totally out of joint by that. In every way. Spiros helps this new family as he did when the Durrells first arrived. She questions whether Spiros is really her best friend, or if he’s just being polite, as he is to the new family. It really throws her. She becomes very jealous and competitive with them.”

Is Louisa’s Greek improving?

“Louisa hardly speaks any Greek. And she didn’t in real life. Her Greek was famously bad. Callum, who plays Leslie, is very good at it. I’d say he has the most Greek lines to say in this series, but Louisa, thankfully, is supposed to be rubbish at it. As I am. Although I did learn to say, ‘Thank you, my star,’ in Greek. Which people seem to like. If you’re going to say anything, say that.” 10

Are the animals still stealing scenes?

“We have flamingos this time. They are beautiful. And the pelicans were babies when we started and now they are fully grown birds. We know no-one is going to be listening to anything you say when there is an animal in the scene. We’re used to that now.

“And in this series, we also have Frank the sloth. That was quite extraordinary because it’s not an animal you get to see very often. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever seen one before. It’s so unusual - just gorgeous and so cute. However, he was very heavy!

“We had scenes written for Gerry (Milo Parker) sitting with the sloth and moving around with it, but it turned out the sloth was too heavy for Milo. His hands were too small. As were Daisy’s (Margo), so they roped me in - which is why I have a scene holding the sloth.

“It really is an extraordinary animal which, of course, decides to become most animated in the back of someone’s close-ups. Then when you want it to do something, it just won’t move. It was amazing to have that on set.”

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3

More Articles

• Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Mushrooms, Mushrooms, Mushrooms and An Observational Trek
• Julia Sneden Wrote: Love Your Library
• The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
• A la Frank Sinatra: "Come Fly With Me", U.S. Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard
• Ferida's Wolff's Backyard: Robin At The Window
• Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days
• From the CDC: When You've Been Fully Vaccinated You Can ........For the 30,000,000 Who Have Been Vaccinated
• The Morgan's Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol: Christmas is nothing more than “a time for finding yourself a year older and not an hour richer”said Scrooge
• Serena Nanda Reviews Light in Dark Times: The Human Search for Meaning
• Jill Norgren Reviews a New Inspector Gamache Mystery: All the Devils Are Here