''My Family and Other Animals'' is a 1987 British TV mini-series produced by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and directed by Peter Barber-Fleming.''My Family and Other Animals'' (1987 series) on IMDb.
/ref>Douglas Botting, ''Gerald Durrell: The Authorised Biography'', HarperCollins, 1999, pp. 549–550. It is based on

Gerald Durrell Gerald Malcolm Durrell Order of the British Empire, OBE (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservation movement, conservationist, and television presenter. He was born in Jamshedpur in British Ind ...

's autobiographical book by the same name, ''

My Family and Other Animals ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956) is an autobiography, 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 wid ...

'', which tells about the time his family spent on the Greek Island of

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

in 1935–1939. The series consists of 10 episodes and was aired for the first time between 17 October and 19 December 1987.

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 A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

(excellent cook), his eldest brother

Larry Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer * Larry Boo ...

(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 Theodore Philip Stephanides (Greek: Θεόδωρος Φίλιππος Στεφανίδης; 21 January 1896 – 13 April 1983) was a Greek-British doctor and polymath, best remembered as the friend and mentor of Gerald Durrell. He was also know ...

, 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. To that end, 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 Hannah Campbell Grant Gordon
Film reference website (born 9 April 1941) is a Scottish actress and presenter ...

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.

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). 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.

Cast

* Darren Redmayne as Gerry (Gerald Durrell) – 10 episodes *

Hannah Gordon Hannah Campbell Grant Gordon
Film reference website (born 9 April 1941) is a Scottish actress and presenter ...

as Mrs. (Louisa) Durrell – 10 episodes *

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

as Spiro Halikiopoulos – 10 episodes *

Anthony Calf Anthony Calf (born 4 May 1959) 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 D ...

as Larry (Lawrence Durrell) – 10 episodes * Guy Scantlebury as Leslie Durrell – 10 episodes * Sarah-Jane Holm as Margo (Margaret Durrell) – 10 episodes *

Christopher Godwin Christopher Godwin (born 5 August 1943) is a British actor who has been active since the late 1960s. TV and recording career He made his TV debut at the age of 25, when he took on the role of PC Grange in an episode of '' Softly, Softly''. He ...

as Dr.

– 7 episodes *

John Normington John Normington (28 January 1937 – 26 July 2007) was an English actor primarily known for his work on television. Normington was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in more than 20 RSC productions. He performed widely in ...

as Kralefsky – 3 episodes *

Dina Konsta DINA may refer to: * Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Chilean secret police under the Pinochet regime * DINA S.A., a Mexican truck and bus manufacturer See also * Dina (disambiguation) Dina may refer to: Places * Dina, Alber ...

as Lugaretzia – 3 episodes *

Paul Rhys Paul Rhys (born 19 December 1963) is a Welsh actor with an extensive career in theatre, radio, television and film. Early life Rhys was born in Neath to working-class Catholic parents, Kathryn Ivory and Richard Charles Rhys, a labourer. He is of ...

as George (Wilkinson) – 2 episodes * Angela Barlow as Mrs. Harcum – 2 episodes * George Dialegmenos as Kosti the convict – 2 episodes * Tonis Giakovakis as Dr. Androuchelli – 2 episodes *

Mihalis Giannatos Michalis Giannatos (; 11 July 1941 – 17 September 2013), alternatively spelled as Michael Yannatos, was a Greek actοr. Ηe was born in ( Konstantinoupoli), Turkey. He left the city for Greece in 1964 during the long expulsion of Istanbu ...

as Yani – 2 episodes * Edward Parsons as Mr. Harcum – 2 episodes * Christos Efthimiou as Theodosius – 1 episode * David Gant as Zatopec – 1 episode *

Bob Goody Robert Goody (16 April 1951 – 5 March 2023) was a British actor, librettist, writer and former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early life Goody was born in Brighton, East Sussex, the son of Kenneth William Goody (1926–2005), an air ...

as Durant – 1 episode * Philip Herbert as Michael – 1 episode *

Ayub Khan-Din Ayub Khan Din (; born 11 July 1961) is a British writer and actor. He wrote the BAFTA, BIFA and London Film Critics Circle award-winning film '' East Is East'' (1999), adapted from his 1996 Olivier-nominated play of the same name. His 2008 co ...

as Yasha – 1 episode *

Evelyn Laye Evelyn Laye (''née'' Elsie Evelyn Lay; 10 July 1900 – 17 February 1996) was an English actress and singer known for her performances in operettas and musical theatre, musicals. Born into a theatrical family, she made her professional dé ...

as Mrs. Kralefsky – 1 episode *

Charmian May Charmian Rosemary May (16 June 1937 – 24 October 2002) was an English character actress best known for her television and film roles. She appeared in the sitcoms '' The Good Life'', '' The Upper Hand'' and ''Keeping Up Appearances'', and ...

as Melanie, Countess de Torro – 1 episode *

Cathy Murphy Catherine McKevitt Murphy (born 7 August 1967) is a British actress. She is known for her television roles as Tilly Watkins in the BBC drama ''The House of Eliott'' (1991–1994), Cheryl Barker in the Channel 5 soap opera ''Family Affairs'' (2 ...

as Jonquil – 1 episode * Stathis Psaltis as the Rose-Beetle Man – 1 episode * Nick Reding as Peter – 1 episode * Evagelia Samiotaki as Agathi – 1 episode * Hristos Valavanidis as the customs officer – 1 episode

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the show was written by

Daryl Runswick Daryl Runswick (born 12 October 1946) is a classically trained English composer, arranger, jazz musician, producer and educationalist. Career Runswick was born in Leicester, and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Corpus Christi ...

. It includes the following tracks: # Main Theme # The Rose-Beetle Man # Caterpillars and Spiders # Spiro and the Scorpions # Sleep and Cypresses # Gerry and Roger Whistler: Ken Barrie.
Singer: Mary King.Daryl Runswick, ''My Family & Other Animals''.
/ref>

References

External links

''My Family and Other Animals'' (1987 series)
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

.
Full soundtrack of the series.
{{Gerald Durrell 1987 films