My Family and Other Animals      Airing Sunday, November 25, 2007 on PBS (Check local listings; dates and times may vary) Aired previously April 2006 Truly, madly delightful ... it's a triumph. Corfu looks exactly as it should, as do the family, the other characters, and even the cast of animals... It's very, very funny.      -- Jennifer Selway, Daily Express One of literature's most charming, eccentric, and amusing childhood memoirs comes to life in a nostalgic adaptation of Gerald Durrell's sun-drenched, fauna-filled autobiography. Eugene Simon stars as 12-year-old Gerald, the youngest member of the Durrell family who pack off together for Corfu in 1935 to escape the dreary English climate. There, Gerald discovers his life's vocation: nature, particularly insects, reptiles, birds, and small mammals, which Corfu has in splendid Greek excess. Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) plays Mrs. Durrell, Gerald's long-suffering mother, a middle-aged widow who moves the family from villa to villa around the island according to the whims of her children. These also include Larry (Matthew Goode, Match Point), a budding avant-garde writer; Leslie (Russell Tovey, Poirot), a gun-obsessed sportsman; and Margo (Tamzin Merchant, Pride & Prejudice), a teen beauty partial to two-piece bathing suits on an island unaccustomed to the style. The Durrell's acculturation to the island is greatly aided by Spiro (Iranian comedian Omid Djalili, Casanova, Gladiator), a larger-than-life taxi-driver who learned his curious English in Chicago; and Dr. Stephanides (Chris Langham), a scholarly physician and naturalist, who bonds with Gerald over a sea slug. High on the list of all-time-favorite books of both young and old in Britain (it was also a bestseller in the U.S.), My Family and Other Animals ends with the onset of World War II, when the Durrells return to England. But the story continues: Larry went on to renown as Lawrence Durrell, author of the Alexandria Quartet and many other novels, poems, and travelogues. Gerald grew up to be a famous naturalist, animal-collector, and conservationist, as well as the author of 37 books. My Family and Other Animals was originally published in 1956. Author Gerald Durrell | Production Notes | Synopsis Who's Who | Links + Bibliography | The Forum Home | About The Series | The American Collection | The Archive Schedule & Season | Feature Library | eNewsletter | Book Club Learning Resources | Forum | Search | Shop | Feedback ©		Preview: Preview: My Family and Other Animals Features: Author Gerald Durrell Production Notes Synopsis Who's Who Links + Bibliography The Forum