Anna Savva, the lovely Greek Cypriot actress, plays Lugaretzia in the new 6-part ITV series called THE DURRELLS which begins this Sunday 3rd April at 8pm.
Anna is a dear friend of mine whom I first met when we were both in our early twenties and have remained close friends ever since. We renewed our friendship in 2004 when we both performed in THE BATTLE OF GREEN LANES at Theatre Royal Stratford East and our chemistry on stage was effortless.
Anna’s parents came to England in the fifties. “My father didn’t approve of my choice of career – he worried that it wasn’t a stable career and who would want to marry me?!” Fortunately Anna’s mother was very supportive and encouraged her to go to drama school. Anna has worked on stage and screen in New York, Italy, Spain, Macedonia, Jordan and Cyprus. “I’ve been able to play a wide range of roles including Lady Macbeth, Frida Kahlo and a one woman play written for me. I’ve worked in Greek and French too. And in EASTENDERS I played a London Cypriot.”
THE DURRELLS is based on Gerald Durrell’s classic trilogy of Corfu memoirs, including the much loved story MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS. It is about an English family in the 1930’s that leaves England to live in Corfu. They don’t have much money and a lot of the humour arises from what they expect and what they find. In our meeting for this article Anna also talked about her experiences in playing Lugaretzia, the Greek house keeper. “Obviously there are a lot of culture differences that Lugaretzia struggles to cope with. We filmed in Corfu for 3 months on beautiful locations. Most of the actors had come from England and were joined by Alexis Georgoulis and Georgos Karamihos from Greece. We all got on very well – Keeley Hawes who plays Mrs. Durrell was great to work with and was very close to the actors playing her children. It was quite an experience working with the animals. We needed a lot of fish to encourage the pelican to do a particular scene! Playing Lugaretzia was a very enjoyable and fulfilling experience and I think my father would have approved.”
It is always a pleasure to meet up with Anna – I would like to take this opportunity to wish her on behalf of our community every success with the series and the future!
(Do not miss THE DURRELLS on ITV from 3rd April at 8pm)