Callum Woodhouse

Welcome to our second installment of highlights from The Durrells in Corfu Season 1! 

As you may recall Louisa and her clan had just made the decision to move from England to Corfu in hopes of changing the outlook and prospects for their family. While the sailing was smooth, the adjustment to life on a Mediterranean island paradise was a rude awakening. All the details of from the episode one recap can be found here.

In episode two we find the Durrells settling into their new lives on Corfu. In other words, Louisa struggles to cope with a lack of funds, the very real possibility of malnutrition and a house that is literally crumbling down around her. Meanwhile the Durrell children (who some, including their mother, might consider feckless) are busy getting on with their own lives. That is until a scary accident unites the family once more.

Kalimera! As fans of The Durrells in Corfu are probably well aware, broadcast of the fourth and final season of the series is fast approaching - Sunday, September 29th at 8 pm ET on PBS to be exact. (As always, check your local listings for dates and times.)  So, as Telly Visions’ recapper of Durrell escapades, for the next few wee

Kalimera! As fans of The Durrells in Corfu are probably well aware, broadcast of the fourth and final season of the series is fast approaching - Sunday, September 29th at 8 pm ET on PBS to be exact. (As always, check your local listings for exact dates and times, just to be doubly safe.) 

So, as Telly Visions’ recapper of Durrell escapades - and a latecomer to the series overall - for the next few weeks I will be looking back at the highlights of the show’s debut season. Please join me on this little walk down memory lane in advance of Louisa and her clan’s farewell run.

ks I will be looking back at the highlights of the show’s debut season. Please join me on this a little walk down memory lane in advance of Louisa and her clan’s farewell run.

Last week, the Durrells had their hands full. Two friends needed rescuing - one from jail and one from dispair. Plus disappointing news arrived from England concerning an expected financial windfall was not to be after all. The full recap of last week's installment of The Durrells in Corfu can be found here. 

This week's season finale, on the other hand, turned out to be something like a chain reaction of toppling love dominos. Louisa and her three eldest children find themselves in the thick of relationship highs and lows while Gerry is concerned for the emotional welfare of their most recent animal lodger, Frank the sloth. But first, let’s examine the how the Durrells came to join the circus.

In this episode, we find Louisa Durrell a woman focused on at least two missions – the release of her former fiancé from police custody and the task of bringing her best friend, and very obvious object of her affection, out of the downward spiral he finds himself in. Add to this a philosophical feud between to her two oldest sons, hosting famous American writer and nudist Henry Miller (Trevor White) as a houseguest, waiting to discover the fate of a long-awaited inheritance and trying to break her youngest child of a rather inconvenient vegetarian habit and you realize it’s just a typical week for The Durrells in Corfu.

This week on The Durrells in Corfu, we find the island has been descended upon by a plague-like swarm of mosquitos. The Durrells, suited up in full-on beekeeping gear, are undeterred in their preparations for Gerry’s birthday celebration. Though Louisa finally concedes they’ll have to move the party indoors, she is bound and determined to make this day a memorable one for her little boy, even as Lugaretiza warns that Gerry has changed. More to the point, he’s growing up without his mother noticing. Larry says in other cultures Gerry would be put through terrifying rituals at his age from teeth filing to adolescent circumcision. Meanwhile, Louisa is planning activities suitable for a five-year-old rather than a newly minted teenager.

The theme of this week’s The Durrells in Corfu episode seems to be infatuation - be it puppy love, a girl crush or that perceived perfection that makes you take a look at your own imperfect life.

We find Mrs. Durrell enjoying a leisurely weekend breakfast with her children though Leslie tells her she doesn’t need them anymore since Frank (the sloth) came along. She insists her hobby will always be her children which she refers to as “my own darling sloths.” The lately absent Spiro shows up at the Durrell abode and gets a big hug from Margo. He informs them he’s been chauffeuring a new family from Italy who, like them, have come to the island to start a new life. The Ferraris live in the expensive villa across the way. And according to Spiro, they are charming, perfect and the Durrells will love them. This seems highly unlikely, however; as Louisa already looks a tad jealous.

In this week's episode of The Durrells in Corfu, we find Louisa basking in the beauty of her adopted home, relaxing with what she calls “sunshine in a glass.” Only Gerry’s ever-present menagerie can harsh her mellow. Soon Margo and Leslie come home from their fulfilling new jobs with talk of furballs and shoplifters. Leslie is also the bearer of a telegram from Larry, currently on holiday in Athens. He’s met Indian Prince Jeejeebuoy and informs them he’ll be arriving for a short stay tomorrow. Though she’s not making any concessions just because he’s royalty, Louisa thinks there’s no harm in a little spring clean. Her children are not likewise inspired.

For the first time since we were introduced to the titular family of The Durrells in Corfu over two seasons ago, a small contingent of Durrells have returned to their rainy, uninspiring hometown of Bournemouth in the Southwest of England. Louisa has made the journey out of duty, while Larry is hopeful that a change in venue will help jumpstart his writing career.

Meanwhile, the younger Durrells have stayed behind at their Corfu homestead where they laze around the house and patently ignore all of their mother’s instructions. With Leslie on security, Gerry on animal welfare and Margo on diplomatic relations, it's anyone's guess how they'll fare until their mother returns.

The theme of this week’s episode of The Durrells in Corfu is the circle of life – featuring a sad, unexpected death and the promise of a new, also unexpected, life. Much like THE WALL, the mini-ecosystem Gerry is obsessed with at the moment, birth and death are simultaneously occurring all the time. Unfortunately for poor Louisa, she is forced to deal with the practicalities and stressful emotions of both.

Upon our return to Corfu this week, we discover life in the Durrell household hasn’t really changed that much. Attention seeking Larry (Josh O'Connor) suffers an injury. Margo (Daisy Waterstone) has broken up with her boyfriend Zoltan and now needs to find a new distraction. Love is in the air for Leslie (Callum Woodhouse) and Gerry (Milo Parker) still has his vast menagerie of native fauna. Last but not least, Louisa (Keeley Hawes) has decided to give up on love and content herself with being a happy, busy widow which is code for interfering in her children’s lives when they would rather she butt out.