Original subtitles

Let's raise a glass.

To us, to these sacred years, and the future.

Cheers.

ALL: Sacred years.

ALL: Geia mas.

For the last four years, I've been leading something of a double life.

Every summer, I've said goodbye to my family back home

and run away to Corfu to hang out with my other family.

The Durrells.

I try not to compare the two,

but The Durrells are eccentric and chaotic

and, frankly, it's been hell.

But the sun has shone most of the time,

and as their mother Louisa, I've gradually licked them into shape.

But now we've packed up our high-waisted trousers

and our floppy hats, and it's time to leave.

But what happened to the real Durrells?

'This extraordinary family of eccentrics left Corfu

'and became some of the most influential people of their times.

'Animal-mad Gerry...' Hello.

'..grew up to be a pioneering conservationist.'

Gerry Durrell was, to use the modern idiom, magic.

'While sex-crazed Larry...'

Please be my girlfriend.

'..became a world-renowned writer.'

My next guest is one of Britain's leading authors.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize For Literature.

'And sister Margo...'

ALL GASP

'..lived life to the full and defied conventions.'

She was a real free spirit. An amazing woman.

She also did like the boys.

'The Durrells rubbed shoulders with movie stars and won over royalty.'

He was always original.

He was somebody who never stopped asking questions.

'Through the eyes of family members and those who knew them,

'we'll discover how Corfu shaped this remarkable family forever.'

I've never met a family like the Durrells.

I think they just...

They broke the mould when they made the Durrells.

Back when the Durrells lived on Corfu over 80 years ago,

the island felt like an abandoned paradise,

and very different to the Britain they'd left behind.

A world of stifling convention, electricity,

and, admittedly, proper toilets.

But as we know,

the family threw themselves into Corfu life with manic enthusiasm.

Margo pursuing, or being pursued by, boys.

Larry searching for literary inspiration.

Gerry saving the local wildlife.

And Leslie killing it.

And Louisa just trying to keep her family alive and well.

'The Durrells set out for Corfu in 1935,

'seven years after the tragic death of Louisa's husband Lawrence.

'The family's money was running out, and Greece offered a cheaper life.'

To move a family to a place where you don't know

what's going to be greeting you when you get off the ferry,

to do that in the 1930s

just because you cared about your family's happiness

and you wanted them to be happy is just mind-boggling.

'The Durrells did what we've all dreamed of.

'They dropped everything and moved to paradise.'

Mrs Durrell, what are you doing?

I'm living for the moment.

'Corfu opened up new experiences for the whole family.

'For Louisa, seven years a widow,

'the island offered romantic possibilities.

'Speculation continues on Corfu about the nature of her relationship

'with local taxi driver Spiro.'

In Corfu, it was known

that Spiro Amerikanos did have a very strong feeling about Louisa.

You can call it love if you like, you can call it affection.

My great grandfather, he was a very benevolent and kind man.

He was a protector of the Durrells when they came here.

What I believe, and from what I've heard, there was a sparkle,

like, something platonic, but that was it.

'Louisa gave each of her children extraordinary freedom.

'Gerry, the youngest, was left to roam the island,

'studying its wildlife.'

Mum!

Gerry, you have a spider, two dormice, a tortoise and a family.

You do not need a pelican.

'But far from leading him astray,

'this unusual start to life was the making of him.'

SQUAWKS

'Gerry grew up to be a world-famous zoologist,

'who established a unique zoo on the island of Jersey,

'dedicated to saving endangered species.'

How do you sum up the contribution to conservation

of someone like Gerald Durrell?

He was truly a man before his time.

'Gerry's zoo and conservation trust

'work to protect nearly 200 species across the world.

'From its Jersey HQ, it is actively breeding 36 endangered species.

'It truly is a modern-day Noah's Ark.'

There are species on this planet

that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Gerald Durrell.

He was undoubtedly one of the most important naturalists of our time.

'Gerald's achievements have been admired at the highest level.

'The Princess Royal has championed his ideas on conservation

'for nearly five decades.'

He understood how species fitted in with each other

and, to some extent, with the human race.

I think it was that level of understanding

that made Gerald Durrell so different.

But he was also sufficiently articulate and sociable

that he could get that message across as well.

'Milo Parker, who plays Gerry in our series, is now an ambassador

'for this internationally-renowned institution.'

Before I filmed series one, I wasn't really educated on conservation.

And now I'm absolutely fascinated by it.

I think I've definitely grown up being Gerry,

and I think that the fact I had the opportunity

to tell people about what this great man did

to help save species from extinction

is really an honour for me.

So, how many of you guys would like to work in a zoo when you're older?

Yeah. It's a fun job, isn't it?

Are there any animals you'd like to work with?

'This pioneering zoo

'grew out of Gerry's childhood love for the natural world,

'which was nurtured on Corfu

'by his friend and mentor Theodore Stephanides.'

Theo was the person who really cemented Gerry's love for animals,

because wherever Gerry had a question

or wanted to know something more, he would go to Theo.

How are your creatures?

I can't wait to show my family.

'Theo was a notable scientist,

'who revealed to Gerry the fascination

'of unusual creatures.'

Through the eyes of Theodore Stephanides,

Gerry is discovering the significance of these animals.

'Corfu gave the Durrells four years of joyful adventures.

'But those carefree times were not to last forever.

'As the war in Europe reached the shores of Corfu,

'the family was forced off the island.

'Larry settled in the Egyptian city of Alexandria,

'where he continued to write.

'Although still a relatively unknown author,

'this city would inspire the work

'that would eventually make him world-famous.

'Unlike Larry,

'Louisa had had quite enough excitement in the Mediterranean,

'and opted for somewhere rather more secure and familiar.

'By the autumn of 1939,

'she had settled back in England with Gerry and Leslie.'

After four years away,

they were again in the polite suburbs of Bournemouth.

A world of twitching net curtains, sensible knitwear and fog.

After the sun and the freedom of Corfu,

it must have felt like waking up with a hangover.

'Louisa bought a quiet suburban residence.

'Number 52 St Albans Avenue.

'It remained the family home throughout the '40s.

'Gerry was as determined as ever to be around animals,

'so soon found a job as a keeper in Whipsnade Zoo.

'The only Durrell to stay on Corfu after the war began was Margo.'

My gran Margo decided that she didn't want

to leave her beautiful island of Corfu and its people,

and she decided to dress up as a peasant

and move in with a local family

and try and camouflage herself in with the locals.

Of course, it wasn't gonna work

cos she was blonde and didn't look very Greek at all.

'Margo was finally prised away from her beloved Corfu

'by a handsome flight engineer called Jack Breeze.

'After a quick marriage,

'they spent the war gallivanting around East Africa with his work.

'One divorce and two children later,

'Margo was back in Bournemouth with the rest of the family.

'Shortly after the war, using money inherited from her father,

'she bought the property opposite Louisa to run as a boarding house.'

The lodgers included a variety of people.

There was a painter who painted nudes

and also would wander around the place half-naked himself.

Transvestites having drag parties,

young nurses who were coming and going

all hours of day and night.

And the neighbours had not quite seen anything like this before,

and so the rumours start that my grandma's running a brothel.

That's what people read into it.

It was a conservative road, you have to admit.

From time to time, in this very quiet suburban street,

the police cars would roar up

because somebody would have escaped

from either the prison or the mental hospital,

and they thought they might find them lodging at her boarding house.

'On his 21st birthday,

'Gerry also inherited a lump sum from his father's estate.

'He quit his job at Whipsnade

'to fulfil an ambition that began in Corfu.'

Gerry, I know I complain about your creatures,

but, well, you're serious about this animal business, aren't you?

Yes, I am.

'He used his windfall

'to fund an animal-collecting expedition to Cameroon.

'His aim was to bring back animals to sell on to British zoos,

'as was standard practice at the time.

'But the lessons he learned from Theo in Corfu

'were still a strong influence,

'and Gerry was soon determined to do things differently.'

"It's not about the animals that will get me

"the most attention or the most money.

"I'm more fascinated with the very unusual things, the scarce things,

"the things people probably didn't even know existed

"that were disappearing."

His broad interests were always leading him down different paths.

Not just the glamorous animals like the orangutans,

which everybody enjoyed,

but insects and birds were just as important to that equation.

'With his unique approach to animal collecting,

'this determined young rebel was now on a path

'that would change zoos forever.'

By 1950, Gerald Durrell was an established animal collector

for some of the biggest zoos in Britain.

But it was a tough business,

and he came back from each expedition broke.

'The revenue from selling his animals barely covered his costs.

'And on top of that,

'he was concerned about how they would be treated in captivity.

'Many of the animals from Gerry's early trips

'were put into the care of London Zoo,

'where conditions were not to his liking.

'In particular,

'he worried the chimps were not treated with respect.

'Before long, his favourite, Cholmondeley, was at the centre

'of a dramatic incident that made national headlines.'

This is the backdrop to an incredible scene

that's played out in January 1951.

And the headlines in the Express read,

"Chumley the Chimp boards a 53 bus, bites a woman,

"wrestles with a man and then acts as King Kong."

I mean, it's not going very well.

The story picks up here and says,

"Cholmondeley legged it across Regents Park."

He went straight across the parkway, which is here, turned up there

and right into Albany Street.

So, Cholmondeley headed up Albany Street, jumped on the bus,

which he stopped.

He then bit a woman on the thigh and bit a bloke on the wrist,

before leaving the bus again

and then climbing up onto a balcony like these here.

Eventually, his keeper arrives

and he jumps some 10ft off the balcony into familiar arms.

And the first part of the story ends well.

He's returned safely back to the zoo.

'Cholmondeley made another bid for freedom 11 months later.

'He once again terrorised pedestrians and jumped on vehicles.'

Sadly, this story didn't end quite as well for him.

He was rounded up, returned to the zoo,

and George Cansdale, who was the superintendent of the zoo, said,

"He was a moody animal,

"gentle as possible at times, a positive terror at others.

"Regretfully, I decided the only thing to do...

"was to shoot him."

'Cholmondeley's death confirmed Gerry's worst suspicions of zoos.'

ARCHIVE AUDIO: 'In a great many zoos,

'the animal is merely an exhibit in a cage

'and it's treated as though it had no personality of its own

'and virtually no likes and dislikes.'

It wasn't about the animals, other than keeping them alive.

It was more about just pure entertainment.

So, this is where the germ in his head started,

which is zoos should be about the animals,

they should be effectively arks for animals that need help.

'Over a decade after he left Corfu,

'Gerry was expanding on the ideas of his mentor Theo.

'However, his ethos was increasingly in conflict with zoos of the time.

'He was becoming ever more disillusioned with his profession.

'But a chance encounter would breathe new life into his career.'

I was only in my teens, so to meet somebody like him,

who'd been everywhere and done everything

and had had that wonderful life in Corfu...

..it was a bit overpowering.

'Shortly after meeting, Jacquie and Gerry were married.

'They moved into Margo's Bournemouth boarding house,

'where Jacquie was initiated into the Durrell clan.'

They were fun to know,

and quite different from anybody else I'd ever known.

With the Durrells, it's like putting on a light switch.

And it comes out in thousands of volts.

'A few years into their relationship,

'Jacquie was joining Gerry

'on expeditions to South America and Africa.

'This is the first time she's seen this footage

'of their trip to Paraguay since it was filmed 65 years ago.'

This is Gerry catching a southern anaconda.

He was a lovely snake.

JACQUIE LAUGHS

I don't know how Gerry could smoke when he had an animal in his hands.

All the animals reacted to him immediately.

He spoke to all of them, he played with them.

It was a totally different way.

When we came back from Africa, I said to him,

"Look, why give these animals to zoos that you despise anyway?

"Why not keep them

""and get Bournemouth to give you a site for a zoo?"

'Unfortunately, setting up a zoo needed money Gerry didn't have.

'But he knew his family had always been tolerant

'of creatures in the home.'

They're pissing and crapping.

Stop them.

'So, Gerry and Jacquie

'brought their latest collection to Margo's garden.'

As you can see, it's quite a big garden

and it was actually bigger then cos it went back further.

But this became his first collection of animals, his first zoo.

We had a whole host of cages full of animals,

and we had a marquee full of cages as well.

And then the garage, which is no longer there, sadly,

they insulated that

and that's where they kept all the reptiles and the exotic birds.

'But, of all the new arrivals,

'one in particular became the star of suburbia.

'Gerry and Jacquie had fallen in love with a baby chimp.'

JACQUIE: That's Cholmondeley.

'It seemed Gerry wasn't very original with names

'because, as with his last chimp that was shot by its keepers,

'this one was also called Cholmondeley.'

We had a little hat, like a Sherlock Holmes hat, made for him

so his ears wouldn't get cold,

and he had a little overcoat as well.

And everybody fell madly in love with him.

Every morning,

Cholmondeley was swinging from the curtains, wasn't he?

Cos it was a treat to see him before we went off to school.

On one occasion, there was Cholmondeley riding a bicycle,

but he was doing quite well, I think.

Gerry used to take him up to the golf club.

The golfers were absolutely fascinated by him.

Everybody used to sort of take it as natural

that Cholmondeley would be up there every day, playing in the trees.

He wasn't a chimp, he was a human as far as the Durrells were concerned,

and he was treated as part of the family.

'Since the start of their relationship,

'Jacquie and Gerry had struggled for money.

'But Jacquie thought she'd spotted an untapped resource

'in his colourful childhood.'

Bravo.

English?

Yes. Gerry.

Kostis.

As he'd amused me for ages with the stories of these animals

and the natives and people he'd met, that's why I nagged him.

'Jacquie hoped he could make some money

'from writing about his extraordinary life.

'After all, by the time the family left Corfu,

'brother Larry had already published three books.'

My new novel. Just published.

Larry spent much of the war in the Egyptian city of Alexandria,

where he was too busy falling in love

and scraping together a living as a civil servant

to publish much writing.

But somewhere in that tumultuous city,

he found the inspiration he'd been looking for his whole life.

'Alexandria in the '40s

'was a cosmopolitan melting pot, full of temptations.'

In Alexandria, he sees a seedy world

that is going to nourish his imagination.

So, obviously, here, Durrell is beginning to discover himself

as the womaniser, the great seducer he was.

'These years in Alexandria

'became the basis for Larry's greatest work.

'The Alexandria Quartet.

'Four novels published between 1957 and 1960.

'This landmark work

'made Larry one of the most high-profile writers in Britain.'

My next guest is a writer,

one of our best and most successful novelists, Lawrence Durrell.

He gained an international reputation

with the publication of The Alexandria Quartet.

'In 1961 and 1962,

'Larry was being considered for the Nobel Prize For Literature.

'But the committee disapproved of his racy subject matter.'

I think they're saying

there's essentially too much sex in the books.

He's not a nice enough writer, not proper, not decent enough.

'If only he'd listened to his mother.'

Why do you have to write about sex all the time?

Because it's everywhere.

'Although very focused on his own writing career,

'Larry had seen the potential in his younger brother at an early age.'

Gerry wrote this just after we arrived in Corfu.

And this one last week.

They're historical documents.

Gerry's going to be a really good writer.

'Larry continued to encourage Gerry's talent as he grew up.'

Whenever he wrote to Gerry, he used to say,

"For God's sake, dear brother, write about your adventures."

'With Jacquie and Larry's encouragement,

'Gerry started publishing books about his expeditions.

'He wrote five in three years.

'The sixth drew upon the happiest period of his life,

'his Corfu childhood.'

Wow!

Gerry sat there in his pyjamas and dressing gown

with cigarettes and a tray of tea

and it would just flow. He just could not stop.

'The book, My Family And Other Animals,

'was published in 1956.'

This book, arguably Gerald Durrell's best,

has been a lifelong favourite of mine.

I read it when I was 11,

and I've since forced it onto my children, who also enjoyed it.

It became an instant bestseller,

and brought droves of tourists to the island.

It was an existence that everybody had wanted to have.

How many people could uproot and go to an island

and have that idyllic life?

I was reading My Family And Other Animals on the train

and, inevitably, you have to laugh out loud

when you're reading Gerald Durrell's books,

and it was very obvious that,

on a train, that creates a certain amount of reaction.

And the other thing was his ability to observe,

which I now feel is almost the most important message of that book.

I remember thinking when I was reading it,

"This boy is like me. He could be my best mate."

So, whatever I was doing, I'd be thinking,

"What would Gerald Durrell do in this situation?"

And to an extent, I still do to this day.

My Family And Other Animals was a runaway success

that made Gerald Durrell a household name across the world.

The only person selling more books in Britain during the autumn of 1956

was Winston Churchill.

The youngest Durrell was now famous

and, he hoped, rich enough to set up a zoo

that would specialise in saving endangered species.

The Durrells had never really felt at home in Britain,

so it's no surprise that, 20 years after leaving Corfu,

they were spread out across the globe.

Larry left Egypt after the war

and had stints in Argentina, Yugoslavia and Cyprus,

before finally settling in the south of France.

Leslie found his way to Kenya,

where he worked in agriculture.

Reports home were positive.

And the other Durrells hoped he'd finally shaken off

a lifetime of underachievement.

Gerald had just written the most successful book of his career.

'But fame and fortune couldn't help him find a home

'for the animals he'd been keeping in Margo's garden.

'After two years of searching around Bournemouth,

'he still had no site for a zoo.

'Then, during a trip to Jersey,

'Gerry and his wife Jacquie came upon the 15th century manor house

'that would become home to their zoo.'

I said to Gerry, "What a lovely place this is."

And within three weeks, everything was settled.

'The animals were brought over from Bournemouth,

'the cages built,

'and Gerry's zoo opened in Jersey on 26 March 1959.

'From the moment its doors opened,

'Jersey Zoo had a very particular purpose.

'To breed endangered species.

'It was a unique vision

'that had started as a boyhood obsession on Corfu.

'As always with the Durrells, the zoo was a family affair.

'Gerry and Jacquie invited Louisa

'to move into their house in the middle of the grounds.'

She loved being in the zoo. She really did.

Many times, we would walk into the flat

and find Gerry's mum sitting with the chimps,

having tea and cakes.

'Gerry had achieved

'his long-standing ambition of owning a zoo.

'But for the first time in his life, he was running a business,

'and the pressure to raise funds was immense.'

Without Gerry's writing, the zoo couldn't have gone on.

I mean, I remember an occasion when I was called into the office

and, "Could you manage without any pay this week?"

We said we couldn't afford to pay them for one period,

and they all worked for nothing.

I mean, what greater loyalty could you get than that?

Gerry was a visionary man.

He was determined to change the role of a zoo

and to make it something worthwhile for the animal kingdom.

And we were his disciples, really, trying to fulfil his mission.

'Life in Jersey was going well...

'but clouds loomed on the horizon.

'Five years after Louisa had moved in with Gerry,

'she was put in a nursing home after a heart attack.

'She died a few days later.'

The Durrells were a close family,

and Louisa had always been the glue that held them together.

When she died, it felt to Gerry

like his idyllic childhood had died with her.

He identified his mother with a very important time in his life,

which was Corfu.

I think it's something he couldn't get over.

He couldn't cope with it.

'For Margo, with Louisa gone and her brothers abroad,

'life in Britain had lost its sparkle

'and she once again felt the allure of sunnier climes.'

None of the Durrells was exactly crippled by self-doubt,

but Margo was perhaps the most outgoing.

So it's no surprise that in her 50s,

after years of genteel Bournemouth,

she embarked on another very Durrell-y adventure.

'Margo's granddaughter Tracy found out all about it

'when she made a surprising discovery.'

I've had this manuscript in her room in a cardboard box.

And it is a really, really fun story.

Margo felt very claustrophobic, living in suburbia, as she put it.

So, when an opportunity arose for her to work on a Greek ship,

travelling the Caribbean,

within a week, she was gone.

Some of it was, like,

"OK... You know, maybe I shouldn't be reading this

"because I'm her granddaughter."

She was doing what she loved.

She was with her fellow Greeks again, travelling across the sea,

entertaining people, being vivacious, being fun.

She was once again that free spirit as she was as a young girl.

'While Margo rediscovering the girl she had been on Corfu...

'back in Britain, Gerry was becoming a TV star.'

This is a hairy armadillo. Isn't he sweet?

'He was appearing on the nation's screens at the same time

'as another young naturalist called David Attenborough.'

I think there was a friendly rivalry between the two.

They both were sort of doing the same thing at the same time.

I think Attenborough maybe had the edge on the media side of things.

He was coming at it from the BBC,

whereas Gerry was coming to it from the zoo.

'Gerry's TV series were ahead of their time.

'In the early 1960s,

'when the modern debate on climate change and pollution

'had barely begun,

'he revealed man's destruction of the planet to shocked audiences.'

ARCHIVE AUDIO: 'This is happening all over Malaya.

'Vast areas are being cleared

'and sometimes they leave pockets of jungle

'not big enough to support the animals left trapped in them.'

He was angry.

You see, I know what human beings are like.

I accept them for what they are.

And Gerry still managed to get angry about it.

'If we can indoctrinate people as they come through our gates

'that creatures are being killed all over the world

'in their hundreds of thousands,

'and if we can save one or two species from extinction,

'then the whole thing will be...'

'Then it will be worth it, certainly.'

'It's the most incredible, the most beautiful garden.

'And what have we done?

'We've trampled through it with our great hobnailed boots.'

Is it me, or is it getting 'otter'? Oh, yes, no 'stoat' about it.

'As a boy on Corfu,

'Gerry had been encouraged by his tutor Theo

'to view all animal life as sacred.

'But 30 years later,

'the pristine world he had grown up with

'was disappearing before his very eyes.'

He genuinely did feel desperate.

If he could have picked up the world and given it a good shake,

I think he would have done.

Because we don't learn anything.

We really don't.

This was about the world around you.

You don't need to be an expert to make a difference.

You need to understand both your local environment

and how humans have that impact.

'By the start of the 1970s,

'Gerry's ideas on conservation

'had caught the attention of some rather well-known people.'

We had international figures from everywhere,

who, by that time, were all admiring what Gerry was doing.

'The admirers included movie stars David Niven and James Stewart.

'In 1972, the zoo welcomed its most high-profile visitor of all.

'Princess Anne.'

I remember the visit couldn't have been more welcoming

and more informative.

I mean, I was very much on listening mode.

Everybody's slightly on edge. We are.

They're getting on like an absolute house on fire.

And they get round to an enclosure with a fabulous male mandrill.

Their distinguishing feature is the most gorgeous electric blue bottom.

He looks at the Princess...

and he says...

"Would you like a bottom like that?"

And you could hear a sharp intake of breath.

And she looks at him and says...

"No, I don't think I would."

It's not difficult to make a joke about a mandrill, is it?

But it was very amusing.

'The visit was a great success

'and the Princess has been a patron of the zoo ever since.

'Jersey Zoo was going from strength to strength.

'In 1973, a baby gorilla called Assumbo was born.'

We were all over the moon.

It was a pinnacle because gorillas weren't being born readily in zoos.

'For Gerry, it was the realisation of his lifelong goal.

'To prove that zoos could breed animals in captivity

'and contribute to the conservation of species.'

I think that is his greatest legacy.

He understood that these things do not live in isolation,

and neither do we.

'By 1976,

'Gerry seemed to have everything he'd ever wanted in his work.

'But the toll on his personal life was considerable.'

It was rather like Frankenstein's monster.

Suddenly, it was obsessing him.

Animals, animals, animals.

They were more important than anybody was.

They were more important than me, I can assure you.

We grew so apart.

Even though he was in the room, he wasn't there.

'With their marriage suffering, Jacquie asked Gerry for a divorce.'

When you lose respect for somebody...

love dies.

Gerald always talked about having Durrells' luck.

Whenever he needed something, or someone to drop into his lap,

it happened.

So, after the breakdown of his marriage, it wasn't long

before someone new stepped into his life.

'In 1977, during a fundraising tour of America,

'Gerry met a 27-year-old zoology student at a party.'

He made a beeline over to me,

and introduced himself.

I said, "Yes, I know who you are."

'Gerry invited Lee to investigate animal calls

'at his sound laboratory in Jersey Zoo.'

I said, "Yes, of course, I'd love to do that."

'Shortly after, she was on a plane to meet Gerry.'

He met me at the Jersey airport

and he had champagne in the back of the car,

so I had a feeling that something else was going on.

'Lee quickly discovered that she had been brought to Jersey

'under false pretenses.'

There was no sound laboratory, there was just sort of a blank canvas.

'It was just a ruse to get me over to see Jersey.'

'Well, I mean, you couldn't say to a lovely lady like this,

'when you're a carunculated old wreck like me,

'you couldn't say to her,

'"Look, I'll pay your way over to Jersey.

'"Come and have a look and see what you think of it."

'She'd immediately suspect something.

'So, I had to think of a method of doing it.

'Anyway, she married me for my zoo.

'I'm the only man in the universe that's been married for his zoo.'

Since he was young,

Gerald Durrell had wanted to protect threatened species.

He would say in later life,

"Since I'm big and ugly,

"I try to preserve the little ones."

Too late for the dodo,

but good news for a host of other animals on the edge of extinction.

His second wife Lee, as a highly regarded zoologist in her own right,

was not only a soulmate,

but also the perfect partner in this ongoing mission of conservation.

'In the early '80s,

'they spent eight months exploring the wildlife of Soviet Russia.'

'After the youngsters are examined, they're released,

'and will make their way to the groups of seals

'that are now gathering near the cracks in the ice.'

Being married to Gerry, working alongside him just felt like,

how lucky could I ever possibly be?

'With Lee's help, Gerry was making a name for himself around the world.

'But in 1986, the world's gaze turned back to their zoo in Jersey

'after a terrifying incident at the gorilla enclosure.'

This chap picked his young son up and sat him on the wall.

The little lad then toppled over into the enclosure...

..where there was Jambo, this full-grown male gorilla.

And Jambo came down...

..and stood over the little boy, who was unconscious.

And drove back the rest of the gorillas,

who were all for coming and having a look.

And you see one bit where Jambo is just touching the boy.

His shirt had come up, a little bit of bare skin.

You could see him smelling like this,

and he touched his face a little bit.

And they opened the slides in the gorilla house

and all of the rest of them were tempted inside with some goodies,

and Jambo stayed until all the rest had gone inside.

And then he went in.

'To the relief of onlookers,

'staff were able to rescue the boy from the enclosure.

'By the mid-1980s, Gerry's ideas on conservation

'had been accepted by the mainstream zoo world.

'The boy raised in the wilds of Corfu

'was now part of the British establishment,

'with all the honours that entailed.

'The day he received an OBE,

'he was also ambushed with a surprise TV appearance.'

I've been avoiding you for years!

Author, broadcaster, internationally famous wildlife conservationist,

Gerald Durrell, on this great day, this is your life. Oh, God!

All over the world, we gathered to come and celebrate Gerry's life.

He was very, very touched.

From her home in Bournemouth, your sister Margo,

and with her, her son Gerry.

'There was an appearance from sister Margo...

'..while older brother Larry sent his regards

'from the south of France, his home for the last two decades.'

Here's pledging you in our local brew, Pic Saint-Loup. All the best.

'But the final guest was the biggest surprise of all.

'Gerry would be reunited

'with one of the most important figures from his Corfu childhood.'

Theo! Theo, Theo!

Right at the end, Theodore himself was brought onto the stage,

and Gerry was just over the moon.

What did he say one time?

"If I had a wish to give a child,

"it would have been my life in Corfu with Theodore,

"who was like Merlin the magician."

'There was one notable absence from the celebration.

'Brother Leslie.

'The year before Gerry's appearance on This Is Your Life,

'Leslie sadly died of a heart attack.

'The rest of the family had always remained close.

'Every summer, Gerry and Margo would join Larry in the south of France.'

In a sense, I think they were harking back

to the paradise they had in the 1930s in Corfu.

'It was at his home in France

'that Larry passed away unexpectedly in 1990.'

Gerry just went very quiet.

You know, I never saw him burst into open grief or anything.

In many ways, he was a very, very private person.

'By the '90s, Gerald was the only remaining Durrell son.

'In 1994, a lifetime of indulgence finally caught up with him

'when he received a liver transplant.

'After treatment in London, he was moved to Jersey Hospital.'

On the day he died, I was up there, just holding his hand.

There's no real way to express how you feel when it really happens.

You know, someone's just gone.

So, this is really a memorial stone for Gerry.

We put half of Gerry's ashes under the stone

and I did take the other half of Gerry's ashes

and scattered them in the sea around Mouse Island.

As a boy, Gerry would have seen Mouse Island

from the first house that they were in in Corfu.

'In 2007, Margo, the last of the Durrell children,

'also passed away.

'Her granddaughter Tracy scattered half her ashes on Mouse Island,

'exactly as Lee did with Gerry's remains.'

It was really lovely that we both felt the same way

and we both knew how special this place was to them in their lives

and how at peace they would feel there.

I think it's quite fitting that two of the Durrells, anyway,

are now resting within sight of their childhood paradise.

It was an enormous loss

because that degree of enthusiasm and motivation,

knowledge and understanding is not easy to replace.

ARCHIVE AUDIO: 'Gerry Durrell was,

'to use the modern idiom, magic.

'A tour of Jersey Zoo conveyed to the visitor

'a new and different zoo experience.

'Animals come first.

'Their keepers second.

'And the public are privileged paying guests.

'Please don't ever forget

'the magic of Gerald Durrell.'

'Once they left Corfu, the Durrells' lives were astonishing.

'Larry had nearly won the Nobel Prize.

'Margo had sailed the seven seas in his sixth decade.

'While Gerry revolutionised wildlife conservation.'

It's no surprise to me that once they left the island,

the rest of the world fell for the Durrells too.

And long may that continue,

as future generations discover the family, read their books

and share in Gerry's joyful obsession with the natural world.

I like to believe

that the Durrells' story will be enjoyed for many years to come,

so that their extraordinary Corfu adventure lives on and on.

Subtitles by TVT