My Family and Other Animals (TV series)

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
My Family and Other Animals
Cover of My "Family and Other Animals" (1987 BBC TV series directed by Peter Barber-Fleming).jpg
Based onthe book My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Written by Gerald Durrell
Screenplay by Charles Wood
Directed by Peter Barber-Fleming
Starring Darren Redmayne
Hannah Gordon
Brian Blessed
Anthony Calf
Guy Scantlebury
Sarah-Jane Holm
Christopher Godwin
Theme music composer Daryl Runswick
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes10
Production
Producer Joe Waters
Running time5 hours
Production company BBC
Original release
Release
  • 17 October 1987 (1987-10-17)
-
  • 19 December 1987 (1987-12-19)

My Family and Other Animals is a 1987 British TV mini-series produced by the BBC and directed by Peter Barber-Fleming. [1] [2] It is based on Gerald Durrell's autobiographical book by the same name, My Family and Other Animals , which tells about the time his family spent on the Greek Island of Corfu in 1935–1939. [2] The series consists of 10 episodes and was aired for the first time between 17 October and 19 December 1987. [1]

Contents

Plot

The show tells the story of the extravagant Durrell family who, tired of the rainy and unhealthy English climate, move to the sun-drenched Greek island of Corfu. The family consists of Gerry (young naturalist), his widowed mother (excellent cook), his eldest brother Larry (starting writer), another brother Leslie (mad about guns and boats) and sister Margo (who suffers from acne). In Corfu they experience a lot of adventures and befriend many interesting people, including Spìro, a taxi driver who lived for many years in Chicago where he learned to speak broken English, and doctor Theodore Stephanides, a polymath who, just like Gerry, adores nature and helps him explore the island's varied wildlife.

Filming and production

The £2 million production was a combined effort by the BBC's Drama Department and Natural History Unit. Exterior scenes were filmed in Corfu in the summer of 1987. It was intended that there should be at least three minutes of natural history footage for every half-hour episode, and twenty scorpions, ten praying mantises, three giant toads, a number of snakes, tortoises, terrapins, barn owls and pigeons trained to dance had been brought to Corfu, together with six hundred frozen mice, as food for the snakes. At the end of July 1987, Gerald Durrell flew out to Corfu to be present for the last few days of the filming. He gave invaluable advice to the production team at the scripting stage, demanding the power of veto over only one thing – the casting of his mother. He felt Hannah Gordon fitted the bill perfectly:

She's absolutely superb. She picks up beautifully my mother's slightly flustered, not-quite-with-it-half-the-time air, and not knowing, if the family were squabbling, whose side to take. [2]

None of the family's three villas proved to be suitable locations fifty years on, and substitutes had to be found (for the record, the Villa Fundana near Skripero stood in for the Strawberry-Pink Villa, the Curcumeli Villa at Afra was used for the interiors of the Daffodil-Yellow Villa and the Bogdanos Villa near Pyrghi for the exteriors, while the Snow-White Villa was impersonated by Kyriakis' House at Poulades). [2]

To celebrate the end of the filming, Gerald Durrell sent out a home-made invitation, decorated with his cartoon animals, for all concerned to come to a party and barbecue at the grand old Curcumeli mansion at Afra:

The Real Durrells invite the Other Durrells, Spiro, Theo and all who worked on the production (even the Producer). For the sake of the reputation of the BBC, please endeavour to remain sober for at least fifteen minutes. [2]

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the show was written by Daryl Runswick. It includes the following tracks:

  1. Main Theme
  2. The Rose-Beetle Man
  3. Caterpillars and Spiders
  4. Spiro and the Scorpions
  5. Sleep and Cypresses
  6. Gerry and Roger

Whistler: Ken Barrie.
Singer: Mary King. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Durrell</span> British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Durrell</span> British naturalist, writer and television presenter (1925–1995)

Gerald Malcolm Durrell, was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. He wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being My Family and Other Animals (1956). Those memoirs of his family's years living in Greece were adapted into two television series and one television film. He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell.

<i>My Family and Other Animals</i> 1956 autobiography by Gerald Durrell

My Family and Other Animals (1956) is an autobiographical book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It tells in an exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised way of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on the Greek island of Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell family in a humorous manner, and explores the fauna of the island. It is the first and most well-known of Durrell's Corfu trilogy, which also includes Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969) and The Garden of the Gods (1978).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee McGeorge Durrell</span> American naturalist

Lee McGeorge Durrell is an American naturalist, author, zookeeper, and television presenter. She is best known for her work at the Jersey Zoological Park in the British Channel Island of Jersey with her late husband, Gerald Durrell, and for co-authoring books with him.

Jacqueline Sonia Durrell is a British author. Born Jacquie Wolfenden, she married naturalist Gerald Durrell and worked alongside him for many years. She assisted him on several of his animal collecting expeditions, and with Jersey Zoo that he founded. The Durrells divorced in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Durrell</span> British memoirist

Margaret Isabel Mabel "Margo" Durrell was the younger sister of novelist Lawrence Durrell and elder sister of naturalist, author, and TV presenter Gerald Durrell, who lampoons her character in his Corfu trilogy of novels: My Family and Other Animals, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, and The Garden of the Gods.

Simon Nye is an English screenwriter, best known for television comedy. He wrote the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly, and all of the four ITV Pantos. He co-wrote the 2006 film Flushed Away, created an adaptation of Richmal Crompton's Just William books in 2010, and wrote the drama series The Durrells.

Louisa Florence Durrell, was an Anglo-Irish woman born in India during the British Raj. She was the mother of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell. She was featured in Gerald Durrell's autobiographical Corfu trilogy, which tells about the Durrells' years in Corfu from 1935 to 1939 in a somewhat fictionalized way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Stephanides</span> Greek-British doctor and biologist

Theodore Philip Stephanides was a Greek-British doctor and polymath, best remembered as the friend and mentor of Gerald Durrell. He was also known as a naturalist, biologist, astronomer, poet, writer and translator.

Anthony Calf is an English actor. He studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He had recurring roles in the television medical drama Holby City, as Michael Beauchamp, and New Tricks as DAC Robert Strickland. He has also worked in theatre, where his credits include productions of The Madness of George III with the National Theatre and A Midsummer Night's Dream, The false servant at the National Theatre and Rock'n Roll at the Duke of York's Theatre. He was nominated as best actor in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2008 for his work in Uncle Vanya at the Gate Theatre. He was featured in King Charles III on Broadway in 2015.

The Durrell family was an English family, two of whose members were best-selling writers. It has been the subject of several autobiographies, the TV series My Family and Other Animals (1987), the television film My Family and Other Animals (2005), the largely fictionalized TV series The Durrells (2016–2019), and the documentary What the Durrells Did Next.

<i>Birds, Beasts, and Relatives</i>

Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969) by British naturalist Gerald Durrell is the second volume of his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, published from 1954 to 1978. The trilogy are memoirs about his childhood with his family between 1935 and 1939, when they lived on the Greek island of Corfu.

Daryl Runswick is a classically trained English composer, arranger, jazz musician, producer and educationalist.

<i>The Garden of the Gods</i> Autobiographical book by naturalist and author, Gerald Durrell

The Garden of the Gods is a 1978 autobiographical book by British naturalist and author Gerald Durrell (1925–1995). It is the third book in his autobiographical Corfu trilogy, following My Family and Other Animals and Birds, Beasts, and Relatives.

<i>My Family and Other Animals</i> (film) British TV series or programme

My Family and Other Animals is a 2005 television film written by Simon Nye and directed by Sheree Folkson. The film is based on the 1956 autobiographical book of the same title written by Gerald Durrell, in which he describes a series of anecdotes relating to his family's stay on Corfu from 1935–1939, when he was aged 10–14.

Richard Leslie Beswetherick Pine is the author of critical works on the Irish playwright Brian Friel, the Anglo-Irish novelist Lawrence Durrell, and aspects of art music in Ireland. He worked for the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ Raidió Teilifís Éireann before moving to Greece in 2001 to found the Durrell School of Corfu, which he directed until 2010. From 2009 to 2020 he wrote a regular column on Greek affairs in The Irish Times and was also an obituarist for The Guardian.

<i>The Durrells</i> British comedy-drama series

The Durrells is a British comedy-drama television series loosely based on Gerald Durrell's three autobiographical books about his family's four years (1935–1939) on the Greek island of Corfu. It aired on ITV from 3 April 2016 to 12 May 2019. The series is written by Simon Nye, directed by Steve Barron and Roger Goldby, and produced by Christopher Hall. Lee Durrell, Gerald Durrell's widow and director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, acted as consultant. The series was partly filmed on location in Corfu, as well as at Ealing Studios and Twickenham Studios in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Antiniotissa</span>

Lake Antiniotissa or Antinioti, sometimes known as Antinioti Lagoon, is a small brackish lake on the north-east coast of Corfu, Greece near Agios Spyridon beach. It is an important wetland area and lies within a Natura 2000 nature protection area of 188 hectares at the western edge of the municipal unit of Thinali. The lake's Greek name translates into English as "the enemy of youth". It was once a malarial swamp and home to the anopheles mosquito, resulting in the area being uninhabited for many centuries, and it is still comparatively undeveloped. The vegetation surrounding the lake includes thickets of reed and bamboo. Inland there are orchards, olive groves and farmland, while between the lake and the sea lie sand dunes. The lake is jointly owned by the twelve principal villages of north-eastern Corfu and leased for fish farming, producing flathead grey mullet, sea bass and eel. It is also used for duck hunting. The adjacent dunes are home to the sand lily and the agile frog. The lake as it was in the 1930s was described by the British naturalist Gerald Durrell in his childhood autobiography My Family and Other Animals, in which it was called the "Lake of Lillies". Durrell wrote that:

it was a mile long, an elongated sheet of shallow water surrounded by a thick mane of cane and reed, and separated from the sea at one end by a wide, gently curving dune of white sand… It was the only place on the island where those sand lilies grew, strange misshapen bulbs buried in the sand, that once a year sent up thick green leaves and white flowers above the surface, so that the dune became a glacier of flowers.

Daisy Waterstone is a British actress, best known for playing Margo Durrell in the ITV family drama The Durrells.

The Corfu trilogy is the unofficial name for three autobiographical books by British naturalist Gerald Durrell, giving humorous, exaggerated and sometimes fictionalised stories of the years that he lived as a child with his siblings and widowed mother on the Greek island of Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell family in a humorous manner, and explores the fauna of the island. A television series based on the trilogy, The Durrells, aired for four series from 3 April 2016 to 12 May 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 3 My Family and Other Animals (1987 series) on IMDb.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography, HarperCollins, 1999, pp. 549–550.
  3. Daryl Runswick, My Family & Other Animals.