Covid was a smudged cloud on the horizon when Baz Ashmawy and his mother, Nancy, sat down to explore the subject of death with Baz and Nancy’s Last Orders (RTÉ One, Monday, 9.35pm) in early 2020. In the two years since then we’ve all been forced to confront mortality to one extent or another, whether that be via the loss of a loved one or merely by sitting through the grim nightly updating of the coronavirus fatality statistics on the evening news.
For that reason an already stark film has acquired an extra layer of poignancy. When Baz and Nancy talk about death it is in largely abstract terms, as if it were something that would come knocking one day — but not today. How little we all knew.
The premise of the documentary is that Ashmawy, who is 47, is entirely unprepared for death. His feelings are especially in a jumble when it comes to his 78-year-old-mother. And so the duo – who starred in several seasons of Sky’s 50 Ways To Kill Your Mammy – set off on a journey of self-discovery and a quest to achieve peace over the fact all of us are on a one-way trip to the great beyond.
Ashmawy comes across unusually sensitive about death, it must be said. “Irish sons and their mothers, it’s a very particular relationship. I have my own children, but she’s like my best mate; she’s my life mentor,” he says. “Who would I have if she wasn’t here? Who would I turn to? There’s no replacement for that relationship.”
Nancy is more phlegmatic. And when the pair visit a funeral parlour in Kildare and then fly to the UK to investigate some fancy bespoke coffins it feels telling that she takes it all in matter-of-factly while his lip wobbles.
It is to the credit of Baz and Nancy’s Last Orders that it doesn’t tie the story up with a bow. By the end Ashmawy remains entirely unprepared for the possibility of a loved one passing—but believes he is finally at least on the road to accepting that all good things draw to a close, life among them. “If you watch a movie, the end is so important. Your life should be like that.”
He says this with a reasonable degree of conviction. And after an hour of talking about death, the sense is that Baz is ready to go back to the land of the living with a greater understanding of the journey we are all on.
