Great opportunity let down by poor writing Familiar with the writings of Gerald Durrell, this viewer was looking forward to this "fish out of water" series based on the Corfu trilogy. Alas, alas, the series writer Simon Nye has completely ignored the one basic rule of writing, that your main characters should be likable and interesting. Keeley Hawes plays the put upon mother of the most obnoxious and thoroughly dislikable trio of young adults ever to appear on a TV screen. The only likable child is the fourth and youngest, animal loving Gerald Durrell himself. who unfortunately appears to be lumbered with the one note story line of saving every living thing in sight. Where the older siblings are concerned, the two older brothers are one note characters, arrogant, obnoxious, rude, self-centered and lazy, while their younger sister is more of the same, condescending to the Greek locals, oblivious to her own unattractiveness and unable to understand why no man is interested in her. Whoever selected the actors to fill the roles of the three siblings should be shot for failing to recognize just how bland and unattractive they are and how they totally fail to form a cohesive and believable family whole. Just how ugly and untalented were the actors who were passed over for these roles? This series has so much potential but everything from the writing to the casting is wrong. That the series is running into its third year can only be put down to its premise, DEFINITELY NOT the writing, which only inspires contempt for the three horrid and unsympathetic siblings who treat their mother like dirt and she accepts it!!! Keeley Hawes is an attractive and talented actress but is totally wasted in this godawful interpretation of the Durrell family's life in Corfu. Did nobody bother to read the scripts before this series went into production? What an insult to the memory of Gerald Durrell!