Alan Bennett plays another man of the North, a put-upon teacher and family man, Midgely by name. Summoned to his dying father's bedside, Midgely will use the occasion to insure that his own life will not be spent in a coma. Midgely is the classic invisible man; the wife and son disdain him, his father exits in cold silence. His Aunt Kitty (the inimitable Thora Hird), having settled in for the deathwatch, where she seems right at home, innocently recalls, "He was a saint. You take after your mother, more." But we are on to the truth about Midgely, and so is a vivacious night nurse (Julie Walters), if only Dad will hang on a few days... A quiet comedy of (mostly bad) manners, interspersed with elegiac dreams and, against all odds, hope for the future.