[ilds] My Family and Other Animals

[slighcl]

Here are some post-Thanksgiving day leftovers for the North American on 
the listserv.

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/myfamily/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_2_masterpiecetheatrebrmyfamilyandotheranimals_2007-11-25
 
*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.

-- 
**********************
Charles L. Sligh
Department of English
Wake Forest University
slighcl at wfu.edu
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