Airdate: Our Zoo

This week ABC has the Free to Air premiere of UK drama Our Zoo.

This six part drama Our Zoo, based on the real story of the Mottershead family who established the cage-free Chester Zoo in the 1930s, has previously aired on Pay TV.

When George Mottershead (Lee Ingleby), an ex-serviceman still struggling to come to terms with the effects of the Great War, finds a monkey locked up in a quarantine cage, it sparks an idea that becomes a life-long mission.

He dreams of building Britain’s first zoo without bars. Unable to see a creature in distress, he soon starts buying up unwanted animals. But George lives with his parents Lucy (Anne Reid) and Albert Mottershead (Peter Wight), his loyal wife Lizzie (Liz White) and his daughters Mew (Amelia Clarkson) and June (Honor Kneafsey). The family home is bursting at the seams. Something has to change…

George soon spies a large rambling estate in the countryside. In a poor state of repair, the house and land are up for auction. It’s the perfect spot for his zoo. But how to raise the funds?

Lucy Mottershead finds her world turned upside down when her husband, Albert, decides to help his son in his madcap scheme, and sells the family business and puts their life savings into the project.
From struggling to win over the hostile locals, to coaxing two bears off a hillside and working out the best way to transport a dozen penguins, Our Zoo follows the ups and downs as the Mottershead family tries to get George’s idea off the ground.

Funny and tender, Our Zoo shows how with dogged determination and a little recklessness, anything is possible.

Saturday 2nd January, 7:30pm on ABC.