With each series of ITV’s The Durrells we move ever closer to 1939 and the outbreak of World War II, which forced an end to the family’s idyllic years in Corfu.
In series three it is already 1937 – but could the drama actually continue into the war years and beyond?
“I really can imagine that, and not just because I want another holiday to Egypt or wherever they went next!” Callum Woodhouse, who plays Leslie Durrell, tells RadioTimes.com.
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“But I can definitely see the series living on and on. Because the family dynamic is so strong and it really doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere. It feels to me like we could just carry it on forever, really, until we’re all old and grey.”
It was the outbreak of the Second World War which forced most of the family to return to England for safety: Louisa Durrell left the island along with her sons Gerry and Leslie and their Corfiot maid Maria Kondos.
But if we did follow the Durrells’ story into the war years, it would be a much more fractured story spread out across England, Corfu, South Africa and Egypt.
When his mother and brothers went home to England, Larry Durrell and his wife actually stayed in Corfu and then escaped with their baby daughter to Egypt after the fall of Greece.
For her part, Margo declared Corfu her true home, moved in with some local friends, began a love affair with an RAF pilot and married him in 1940. They lived in South Africa until the end of the war, then moved to Bournemouth, had two kids and divorced.
In fact, Margo was quite a colourful character: she ran a boarding house in Bournemouth, and later wrote a book called “Whatever Happened to Margo?” which told the story of her eclectic guests, her love affair with a trombonist, and the occasional visits from Gerry and his “travelling menagerie” of animals.
“I’d love to see Margo in old age! I’d like to see myself in old age,” Daisy Waterhouse, who plays Margo Durrell, tells us.
Callum jokes: “We’d have to get you in prosthetics and do it like that.”
But for now, Margo and Leslie are still teenagers as The Durrells returns for series three – and filming is now complete.
“There’s a lot of exciting stuff for Leslie going on,” Callum says. “He starts the series, basically he’s a bit of a casanova. And has a bit of a journey of self-discovery through the series.”
And there will be romance for Margo too, says Daisy: “Margo’s going out with Zoltan in this series, who comes at the end of series two and I think it’s Margo’s first love.”
The Durrells in Corfu season 3 airs on Sundays at 8/7c on Masterpiece on PBS
This article was originally published in February 2018
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