The exotic creatures on the set of The Durrells.

Milo Parker tells Jim Maloney what it was like acting with a series of exotic creatures in the Prime family drama The Durrells.

The death of one of his beloved pets leads young Gerry Durrell to take his first steps to what was to become his major adult achievement – setting up the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in 1963, to save species from extinction.

In The Durrells this week, tragedy occurs after Leslie locks his brother, Larry, in the toilet after being goaded about his novel writing.

What neither knows is this is where Gerry has been storing two bats to add to his ever growing menagerie. When one bat dies because of Larry’s predicament, a distraught Gerry demands a funeral for the creature.

The death inspires him to start a Centre For Scientific Learning and the family realise just how passionate he feels about wildlife.

“When we were filming the bat burial, I was holding a tin to put it in the ground and I sprinkled soil on it,” says Milo Parker, who plays Gerry. “But the pelican thought it was food so it started nipping me with its beak on my shoulder. It was rather distracting.”

Milo admits to being nervous about working with the many different animals in the show when they started filming.

“Working with all the animals was quite intimidating at first but then I realised that everything was under control and the animal trainers were there behind the cameras, making sure the animals were treated with respect. And as I got to know the animals and they got to know me it became a lot easier.

“I was particularly nervous of

the pelican because it has a huge wingspan, but Anthony, who was the owner of the pelican, was brilliant in teaching me how to control it. So it was fine.”

Milo, 13, had a tutor on hand during filming in Corfu so that he did not miss out on his education.

“It was quite difficult at times because, obviously, I was very busy on The Durrells, but my teacher Katherine Hook has been with me for my last couple of jobs,” he says. “We have this little trailer on set where I do my schooling in conjunction with filming.

“I have to do 15 hours minimum a week of tutoring which we fit in when they’re setting up the cameras and so on.

“I’ve got a close group of friends I hang out with at school and we keep in touch when I’m away. They’re very supportive of what I do. So that makes it a lot easier.

“I was with my tutor when I first heard I had to practise riding a donkey, because Gerry rides around on one called Sally. There was a lovely man from Greece who owned the donkey but he couldn’t speak any English, so we had to get a translator out. It worked very well... and I soon got a feel for riding it.

“There were some really sweet baby owls that I had to handle and also a seagull, goats, bats, turkeys and insects.

“Gerry’s dog, Roger, is actually called Mossup in real life and she was one of my best friends on the set. She was so well behaved and Alan, her trainer, was fantastic at teaching me all the little gestures that made her do the tricks. She was brilliant to work with. Although it sounds funny, because she’s a dog, she was actually very intelligent. You could almost communicate with her. I have two dogs at home – a 16-year-old golden retriever called Inka and a two-year-old toy poodle/shih tzu cross called Sybil – that I’m very close to and so I am used to dogs.

“I am quite interested in nature and animals but not as enthusiastic as the real Gerald Durrell was. He went on to become a well-renowned animal expert and conservationist who was very passionate about what he did.”

Milo says that reading Gerald Durrell’s famous book, My Family

And Other Animals, about his young life in Corfu, was a big help in getting under his skin.

“I didn’t know anything about him before working on the show and the book helped me get a feel for what Gerald was like.”

Actors and animals aside, Milo feels the idyllic location is one of the biggest attractions of the series.

“In many ways Corfu is the star of the series. It comes across so well. The camera picks up the blue sea and sky and sunlight. You can get a real feel-good factor from seeing Corfu on screen. It was a brilliant place to film.”