Dad Eternal
6 x 60 Serial
The not too distant future. Millennial Benjamin Mudd, 49, has planned out his future, and the future of his wife and son, for the next ten years: private secondary school for Fred (12), private healthcare for his family, investments to cover a private pension, and a holiday home in France for he and wife Chloe (47) to grow old in. However, like most millennials, Ben can only afford to pay for this future once his baby boomer dad Clive (88) dies and he can inherit. But that is fine - Dad is clearly on the way out, and Ben has enough to cover the first two years of school for Fred. It’s a solid plan.
However, when the unpopular Tory government of the day makes the inevitable decision to finally abolish the NHS, they seek to sweeten the pill - with the older voters, at least - by entering everyone over fifty into an immortality lottery.Yes, that’s right: in this future, the secret to eternal life has just been uncovered, and is available only to the super rich and the super lucky.
One day, Clive pays his son a visit, with some extraordinary news to share. He is one of ten UK taxpayers to have won immortality. He will now literally live forever.And ever, and ever...amen. Ben manages to disguise his resentment, which soon turns into desperation.Why should this ageing, spoilt egotist be granted eternal life - or a final pension salary, for that matter - just because he happened to be born in a more generous time? No, Ben cannot let this be. He isn’t flushing his family’s future down the toilet just because Clive is now immortal. It’s clear what he must do: have Dad killed.
This is the decision Ben reaches at the end of the first episode of Dad Eternal. What follows is a satire on the generational conflict between the spoilt baby boomers and the self-pitying millennials. Ben will learn that trying to have his Dad killed is not the answer to his problems - but only after he has been incarcerated for 30 years for his attempted murder. Clive will learn that there’s no triumph to living large and well if it means outliving everyone you have ever met, and burying your own son. Dad Eternal is by turns a bleak farce, a touching family drama, and a cautionary political tale.