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Customer Reviews of My Family & Other Animals

Excellent family mini-series from the BBC
This dramatization of Gerald Durrell's classic memoir of a 10 year old English boy's transplantation to the Greek island of Corfu, and the domestic comedy of manners which follows as his family acclimatizes, is thoroughly enjoyable and completely different from American family fare which relies on crime and violence, car chases and the threat of violence for its comedy and dramatic suspense. This film displays a refreshing alternate sensibility which relies instead on the intrinsic interest of place, of a boy's developing love for nature, and for the unfolding of human foibles in a terrific, quixotic environment.

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"Spiro, Spiro"
I first saw this dramatization of Gerald Durrell's memoir of his childhood on Corfu on A&E. I taped it off the air and watched it several times. When the VHS became available, I bought that.

Gerald Durrell was the youngest brother of the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell (they're both deceased now). According to Gerald, Lawrence bullied his family into moving to the Greek island of Corfu in the early '30s. The result was an hilarious clash between the eccentric English family and the equally eccentric Greek residents of the island. Gerald was obsessed with animals and eventually became a well-known zoologist. His account of his mother, older sister, and two older brothers in their alien surroundings makes for a very amusing read. This televison version of it doesn't quite catch the zaniness of the book, but its still funny in an understated English manner. Brian Blessed is the perfect Spiro, the family's 'man of business', and Hannah Gordon is wonderfully daffy as the Indian-cuisine-loving matriarch.

Languorously paced, but a vision of a childhood paradise, this video would make anyone envious of Gerald's family. One gripe I have about the pre-recorded video is that they left out the episode of the Turkish boyfriend. I don't know whether it was for reasons of length or because of 'political correctness', but it's still disappointing.