ON THE COVER The Durrells
It’s back – the feelgood family series set on sunny Cor fu
Sun, sea, animals, a beautiful location and warm-hearted adventures with a rather eccentric family. What’s not to like about TheDurrells?
Last week saw the return of the feelgood family drama which gives us a muchneeded taste of early summer.
“I look forward to meeting up with the cast and crew every year to film the series,” says Keeley Hawes, who plays matriarch Louisa Durrell. “It really is a joy to make, and I would like to carry on doing it every year.”
In this new series, based on the books by conservationist Gerald Durrell and set in the 1930s, single mum Louisa is still trying to look after her challenging children – Larry, Leslie, Margo and Gerry – on the idyllic Greek island, while they continue to meddle with her love life.
When we met Keeley and her screen “family” on location – not in Corfu, sadly, but in chilly Ealing Studios, West London, where the interiors are shot – there was a genuine warmth and sense of happiness about them.
“I feel really close to my screen children,” says Keeley. “They are all so lovely and we spend time together on our days off in Corfu. Milo Parker, the youngest, who plays Gerry Durrell, is 14 and I am 40 and yet we get on very well. I think the fact that I have children in real life does make a difference.”
Keeley has two children, Maggie (12) and Ralph (10) with her husband of 15 years, RipperStreet actor Matthew Macfadyen, and a 16-yearold son, Myles, from her first marriage to cartoonist Spencer McCallum.
“If I am out walking with my children, I do this thing where I put my hand behind me and I know that someone will always take it. And I have done that in a couple of scenes when we were filming TheDurrells and I felt Milo’s hand. Those are the sort of things you can’t write in. They just happen.
“I think that natural closeness among us comes through on screen. The gorgeous weather and scenery appeals to viewers, of course. It’s uplifting to see that. And another reason for the show’s success is that all ages can enjoy it.
“I mean, I can watch DoctorWho for a while with my kids but after a while I will be yawning. But the response I have got from people with TheDurrells is that it’s something that whole families can watch together from nine to 90. And that is very rare because it’s a very difficult thing to make work.”
There was even more of a family feel on location when
“We would all go out for dinner with my real and screen children – seven in all!”
Keeley’s real children came over to visit during filming.
“We would all go out together for dinner with my real and screen children. Seven of them in all – and they really get on well. It was lovely. And I flew back home every other week.”
Keeley is full of admiration for what Louisa Durrell did in moving from London to Corfu in 1935, in a time when travel and communication were far more difficult for a woman – a single mum in particular.
“It’s difficult enough for us going on holiday for a few weeks, isn’t it?” she says. “There’s all the arrangements and packing and it’s quite stressful. But Louisa picked up everything she owned and moved with her children to start a new life in another country with hardly any money, not quite knowing what she was going to do when she got there.
“You couldn’t just jump on EasyJet in those days. It took an age to get anywhere. I think she was incredibly brave and adventurous.
“People do like that idea of just jacking it all in and moving to a sunshine island, and that’s one of the attractions of the show but of course the reality of doing that is much harder than the fantasy.
“I dream of it from time to time but I know it’s not going to happen.”