Down-to-earth Keeley plays harassed mum Louisa in the hit drama, an adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s childhood memoir My Family And Other Animals.
Filming took place on the Greek island of Corfu, near where the real Durrell family lived in the 1930s, and Keeley had her three children fly over to join her.
“Along with my four Durrell children we all went to a restaurant one night,” says Keeley, who has a son from her marriage to cartoonist Stephen McCallum and a son and daughter from her 12-year wedlock to fellow actor Matthew Macfadyen.
“It occurred to me at that moment, sat there with seven children all from different backgrounds, that this is what it must feel like to be Angelina Jolie!”
The 40-year-old, who can also be seen in police drama Line Of Duty having reprised her BAFTA-nominated role of Lindsay Denton for the current series, says her involvement in The Durrells couldn’t have been better timed.
“I had just started reading Gerald’s first book to my two youngest children when the script came along.
“I also have fond memories of Corfu having gone there on a family holiday when I was nine or 10. It was the first time I had been abroad.
“I’m in awe of Louisa and what she did; being a mother of four children, a widow, and packing up her children and their dog and all their worldly possessions to start a new life in a foreign country.
“It was such a brave thing to do and one of the wonderful things about this story is that it’s incredible, it’s lovely and heart-warming – and it actually happened.”
The Durrells, ITV, Sunday, 8pm.
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