Does Louisa come to terms with both Leslie and, particularly, Gerry growing up?
“There’s a line about how every year the children all move further away from Louisa. ‘The last time I brush your teeth for you, the last time you let me hold your hand as we cross the road.’ It’s heartbreaking. And it’s so true. I do remember the last time I brushed my children’s teeth for them. “Our writer Simon Nye is so good at that because he’s got children, been there and done it. He deals with all of that so beautifully.
“It’s been really exciting for Milo. He’s had some lovely scenes where Gerry is changing and growing up. It’s great that it’s been addressed because he’s clearly taller than when we started and we’ve got a small moustache on the go.
“Gerry was a real man and he did grow up. I think it’s addressed in a brilliant way with some lovely scenes. Anyone with an angry adolescent will be very sympathetic! It’s a learning curve for all of us.
“There’s one scene involving Gerry which we’ve yet to film involving a poem he’s written about his mother. And I can’t even read the scene without crying my eyes out.
“It always has this added layer when you know these were real people. It’s heartwrenching, but they are some of my favourite scenes. Louisa knows Gerry will grow up and has to accept it. Eventually, Louisa’s children did fly the nest.”
Simon Nye describes The Durrells as comforting television that illuminates and celebrates family life. There is obviously a place for that in today’s world?
“I think that’s a lot to do with its success. Exactly that. I’ve got to the point where I don’t want to read the news anymore. The Durrells is very comforting. It’s like the Victoria Sponge of TV, in the loveliest way because it is comforting and you can forget about those other things just for a little while.”
Yet this series also touches on issues of the day, including dictatorship and fascism?
“It deals with all of these issues ahead of the Second World War. And we’re still dealing with them today. It does resonate. The Durrells is not mushy in any way, ever. The cute stuff is always cut with very sharp humour and observation, so it’s never twee.
“That’s what I love about it. It is so clever. It’s such an easy and funny read. That sort of writing is some of the most difficult to do because it’s actually a little bit sharper than you imagine.
“The Durrells were immigrants to Corfu and were completely welcomed. They had a wonderful time in a period where things were about to become very messy.
“It was a very well-timed thing for them to do. For Gerry to have that childhood and that moment. And for all of them to become the people they did. Although not all of them entirely successful. Some had very sad endings. But Louisa did a wonderful thing.”
One episode features a traveling circus. How was that to film?
“The traveling circus was fantastic. It looked beautiful. Simon Nye had so much confidence in all of the departments that work with us, including the art and costume departments. To visualize something like that and have the confidence that people are going to make it work. “It was so beautiful and jaw-dropping. Everyone has their moment to shine. We were really excited about that episode. In a simpler time before Xbox and things, a circus like that would have been hugely entertaining. It is rather magical, as is The Durrells in lots of way.”
Did your family visit you on set for this series?
“Matthew and the children came over again for 10 days and had a nice holiday. I also go back home a lot more than everybody else because of the children.”
Josh O’Connor plays Larry Durrell How do you look back on the making of this third series?
“It’s very emotional when filming is nearing its end and various cast members are saying goodbye. We all get on so well and we are a family for these months of filming every year. It takes a few weeks before you can reflect back on the series.”
Where do we find Larry when we meet him again?
“Larry is in the process of writing another novel. He has tried to move away from the family and that didn’t go as well as he would have liked. On Larry’s mind is this thing of him being the father in this family in a way. So that obsession about finding his mother a partner is, perhaps, about shifting responsibility a little bit and trying to find his own independence.
“There’s an air of that in this series. We find Larry settling back into family life with a new outlook. And then we see him falling back into his old ways.”
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