A film review by Meredith Blake for LATimes.com on Oct. 15, 2016.
Destitution has never been quite as appealing as it is in The Durrells in Corfu, (pronounced DAR-rulls in COR-fu or cor-FU) the latest slice of picturesque Anglophilia from Masterpiece.
The twelve-episode series (total of seasons 1 and 2) is escapist entertainment in the most literal sense, following widow Louisa Durrell (Keeley Hawes) and her four unruly children as they flee smug, tweedy old England for the scenic Greek island of Corfu in 1935.
When we first meet Louisa, eight years after the death of her husband, she is barely scraping by on her meager pension and has developed a worrying gin habit.
She's also constantly at odds with her kids, an eccentric bunch who range in age from 11 to 23. The oldest, Larry (Josh O'Connor), is an aspiring writer with sex on the brain; Leslie (Callum Woodhouse) is a sweet teenager whose sole passion in life is shooting; Margo (Daisy Waterstone) is histrionic and boy-crazy; while the youngest, Gerry (Milo Parker), is obsessed with wildlife.
At Larry's suggestion, the Durrells decamp to Corfu, then a scenic backwater with no electricity, where they can live more frugally. With the assistance of Spiros Halikiopoulos (Alexis Georgoulis), a charming Corfiot taxi driver who loves all things English and drives an American automobile, they settle into the Villa Anemoyanni at Kontokali, a crumbling oceanfront house with the sort of rustic charm people now pay a fortune to re-create, and face a series of misadventures.
Callum Woodhouse, Milo Parker, Daisy Waterstone, Keeley Hawes and Josh O'Connor, upon their arrival in Corfu, in The Durrells in Corfu.
At one point, things are so financially desperate that Louisa sends her children to forage for berries in the woods -- but who cares, because check out that view!
Corfu is in the center of the map, off the west coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, just below the border between Greece and Albania.
The Durrells in Corfu was adapted by Simon Nye from the trilogy of autobiographical books by famed British conservationist Gerald Durrell (depicted here as the young, animal-obsessed Gerry; Larry will become novelist Lawrence Durrell). His writing is nimble, witty and irreverent, warm but not remotely sentimental.
Not surprisingly, the series is gorgeous to look at, with special attention paid to the Corfiot flora and fauna. As usual in these British period pieces, the cast is uniformly excellent. The Durrell children are vividly realized oddballs, each irritating and endearing in nearly equal measure.
But The Durrells in Corfu is indisputably Hawes' show. She gives a dryly hilarious performance as Louisa, a woman who remains vibrant and adventurous, despite what life has dealt her. Her slow-burn romance with Sven, a brooding Swedish farmer (Ulric von der Esch), with overtones of Pride and Prejudice, is a thing of pure, squeal-inducing pleasure.
The Durrells in Corfu is not the kind of show that will keep you up late at night pondering life's big questions, but given the cataclysm about to erupt in Europe, it feels like a glimpse into a lost idyll. It's the 1930s, Louisa says. People don't need guns anymore. If only. [Blake’s rating: **** out of 5 stars]
[Blogger's comment: The Durrells in Corfu comprises 26 episodes and was originally aired between April, 2016 and May, 2019. Seasons 1 and 2 were released on Blu-ray in the U.S., but the last two seasons were only released on DVD (Europe) and Amazon Prime.
The Durrells in Corfu does depart from history in some respects. For example, eldest son Lawrence Durrell was actually married to his first wife, Nancy, when he persuaded his mother and siblings to emigrate to Corfu with him.
[Blogger's comment: The Durrells in Corfu comprises 26 episodes and was originally aired between April, 2016 and May, 2019. Seasons 1 and 2 were released on Blu-ray in the U.S., but the last two seasons were only released on DVD (Europe) and Amazon Prime.
The Durrells in Corfu does depart from history in some respects. For example, eldest son Lawrence Durrell was actually married to his first wife, Nancy, when he persuaded his mother and siblings to emigrate to Corfu with him.
Labels: biography, comedy, cross-cultural, drama, rom-drama-faves, romance
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