PBS's The Durrells in Corfu appeared two Sundays ago out of the blue and has quickly become my favorite show on television. Not surprisingly, since it involves travel (eccentric family uproots from England to go live on a beautiful Greek island) and has as its main characters not one but two nascent writers: the novelist-and-travel-writer-to-be Larry and the zookeeper-and-memoirist-to-be Gerry (on whose trilogy the show is loosely based). While clearly taking advantage of the popularity of more recent expat-in-paradise books (A Year in Provence, Under the Tuscan Sun), The Durrells in Corfu has a different feel. Here it's not just the locals but the family members who are odd and colorful. (The first and most famous book in the trilogy is titled My Family and Other Animals.) When I lived in Greece, in the winter of 1979, I met a woman, an expat, who told me that people generally preferred Gerry to Larry, who came across as a bit of a prig. When you watch the show, this sounds about right. But I should add that the woman shared a house with six dogs.
