The Durrells

Written by Roger Goldby (The Durrells) and Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly), Finding Alice focuses on Alice (Keeley Hawes) as she navigates grief, love and life following the death of her husband Harry.

Harry’s sudden accidental death happens not long after him and Alice move into their newly finished dream home and he falls down the stairs.

His death sparks a storm of secrets, mess, debt, suspicion and criminality, which Alice must confront in order to survive.

Through the glass of Sally Woodward Gentle’s office in Fitzrovia, the founder of Sid Gentle Films looks out on to a large space filled with hard-working media types.

Only a modest nine of them work for her, however. The rest are social-media people and TV-commercial producers. Sid Gentle may be one of television’s most creative young indies, but it is not, at a time of rising drama costs, wasting its money on an F-off HQ.

Based on conservationist Gerald Durrell’s series of books documenting his family’s time in Corfu in the 1930s, the forthcoming series will be written by BAFTA award nominee Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly).

Have you heard about the woman who named her new production company after her dog? She then went on to make ITV’s most popular new drama series since Cilla in 2014.

The Durrells, described by The Daily Mail as “a masterclass in ideal Sunday telly”, was the first show produced by Sid Gentle Films to be broadcast.

More than 6 million people tuned in regularly this spring to watch the sun-soaked, feel-good adventures of an English family struggling to adjust to life in 1930s Corfu.

Monday

Posh Neighbours at War

Channel 4

7.30pm

Quite aside from having a title to die for, the documentary offers an insight into some of the most vicious spates between neighbours in some of the most expensive parts of the country.

In parts of London where properties can cost tens of millions of pounds, the residents are unsurprisingly a bit on edge about noisy neighbours and their property.

This is not the first dramatization of Gerald Durrell’s autobiography My Family and Other Animals to appear on television. The naturalist’s tales about his outrageous relatives have graced the small screen twice before, with a number of familiar faces behind the eclectic characters. Here is a look back over the more memorable portrayals of the Durrell clan.

Brian Blessed as Spiro (1987)

Keeley Hawes is set to lead new ITV drama The Durrells.

The actress, who previously appeared in Line of Duty and Ashes to Ashes, is set to play Louisa Durrell the upcoming six-part series.

Set in 1935, the series is based on Gerald Durrell’s classic trilogy of Corfu memoirs including much-loved My Family and Other Animals.