Educational Media Reviews Online

This abbreviated adaptation of the memoir by Gerald Durrell dramatizes the humorous misadventures of the British author's family on the Greek island of Corfu during the summer of 1935. Comprised of Durrell's widowed mother, two brothers (an avante garde writer and a gun enthusiast), a sister (a teen beauty), and the author as a boy (an avid collector of animals), the author's family possess endearing foibles that lead to a series of harmlessly comedic crises.

Mrs. Durrell maintains a loose rein on her children as she moves them along from villa to villa, with the help of the friendly locals. The eldest brother exhibits a bohemian inability to attend to worldly concerns, almost drowning in a mud hole on one occasion, setting his room afire on another. The other brother serves as a model of no-nonsense pragmatism; while his gun obsession leads to a moment of comic danger, it also puts food on the table. The sister effortlessly attracts boyfriend after boyfriend from among the local youth and Durrell's tutors alike. Left mostly to his own devices, the young Durrell explores the island, brings home a variety of insects and animals, and makes friends with fellow animal collectors.

The pacing is quick and punchy, delivering a relatively plotless series of amusing episodes, punctuated by brassy music at the zanier moments. The short adaptation is necessarily selective, depicting only portions of the print memoir, which covers the entire four-year span, 1935-1939, which Durrell spent in Corfu as a boy. World War II is alluded to only briefly near the end of the story, which sustains a light tone throughout. Quality meets the high standard of similar Masterpiece Theater productions: scenery is notably good. While the story entertains more than informs, educators may use the work to teach memoir, travel literature, literary adaptation, or about flora and fauna indigenous to Greece.