"Why do we put up with this bloody climate?" moans Larry Durrell during the rainy prelude to this Masterpiece Theater presentation. It's 1935 and 12-year-old Gerald (Eugene Simon, Casanova) is living with his family in Bournemouth. His father passed away years ago. Much like Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents, his mother (Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake) sees widowhood as a chance to make a fresh start. On Larry's advice, she decides to relocate the brood to sunny Corfu (now Kerkira), so off to Greece they go: Mother, nature-obsessed Gerry, boy-crazy Margot (Tamzin Merchant), gun-happy Leslie (Russell Tovey), and literature-loving Larry (Matthew Goode, Match Point). Minutes after their arrival, a burly fellow named Spiro (Iranian comedian Omid Djalili, Gladiator) takes the quintet under his wing and finds them a roomy villa. Soon Gerald is collecting every manner of animal: turtles, rose beetles, rabbits. The other Durrells embark on adventures of their own, brassy jazz-pop punctuating their every move. Previously produced as a 1987 miniseries by the BBC, this fanciful film boils Durrell's enduring memoir down to a brisk 90 minutes. The structure may be episodic, but the attention to detail--the exotic fauna, the evocative costumes--is praiseworthy. As Gerry notes about his creatures, "They're just like us, aren't they--families. I want to know how they all work. Imagine if they weren't there?" While Gerald would go on to become a naturalist, brother Lawrence would find also fame with The Alexandria Quartet. --Kathleen C. Fennessy