Gerry Robinson is helping two couples through the process of writing wills. Lesley wants to leave half their joint estate – £150,000 – to a cat's home, instead of it going to husband David's two sons from a previous marriage. What! Isn't that grounds for Lesley to be immediately sectioned? David seems remarkably calm about it, though.
And in the other case, Kiera wants everything to go to charity, rather than to Tom's daughters. Nothing wrong with charity, charity's brilliant. But Kiera is pretty unspecific about which charity; she would like to create some kind of community park space, she says, but then says the money could go to her family. What she really wants, it seems, is for Tom's daughters to get nothing, and other than that it doesn't matter what happens to it.
I'm sorry I'm taking the men's side; it's not because they are men, it's because they – or their children – are getting rough deals. Sir Gerry seems to see it that way, too, and does some tactful negotiation on their behalf. Tom's girls will now get something. But Lesley is beyond help, and I'm afraid those cats are going to become very fat ones.
It's not an obvious subject for a six-part television series, but it's fabulous: emotional, thought-provoking, fraught. It would be much easier if everyone did it the way it's going to be done in my family. My older sister and younger brother will each be allowed to pick a painting of their choice (apart from the Rothko, which I've always rather liked). And then, as the eldest son, I will get the rest: the land, the family businesses, the properties, the furniture, the remaining paintings. My siblings may feel some resentment, but there will be no argument, because they understand that that is the proper way.
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