Last night was the first airing of Sky's highly anticpated new series 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy, with Baz Ashmawy taking his mum all around the world trying to kill her. Well no, he's not really, but they do go on a shed load of adventures including a rather terrifying (for Baz) skydive, hanging out with bounty hunters, and firing off a few AK47's. Did we mention his mam is seventy-one?
Nancy is your typical Irish mammy, Mrs Brown better step up her game if she wants to live up to her. We were lucky to get a chance to catch up with Baz and his mam recently to chat about the show and to see how she feels about her experiences now.
'It was all easy compared to this', said Nancy smiling. What was 'this'? The interview, as it turned out. Uh oh. Not to worry though, Nancy was as lovely to chat to as if you were sitting down having a cuppa with your own mam, and her relationship with her son Baz is as natural off-screen as it is on, this Irish mammy doesn't put anything on for the cameras.
The pair have long returned from the adventures and we are happy to tell you that Baz did not manage to kill his mammy, in fact, if you were watching the end of last night's episode you'll have seen Baz's emotional reaction to her skydive when he thought he pushed her too far, although Nancy was loving every minute of. 'I can't even watch it now, but it was her favourite thing out of everything' said Baz.
His priority, he says, was always about keeping her safe but at the same time proving that she was well able for it, despite her seventy odd years. "It's not an age thing, it's a fear thing. The anticipation is always much worse." Baz tells us.
Nancy said; "When you reach a certain age, people treat you differently". with Baz adding; It's that feeling that as you get older people become invisible, and it's a shitty feeling." He joked; 'I'm an ego maniac so my worst nightmare would be for people to think I was invisible."
"We're not saying you should go out skydiving with your mum, but maybe she's never been to Bangkok. Maybe you should just book the trip.'
"And get into a tuc tuc, laughed Nancy.
'Look at you all versed on Bangkok life now!" said Baz.
As you can tell, as mother-son relationships go, they do seem to have a pretty special bond, so what's their secret? Hanging out together it seems. "When you know someone warts and all, and you accept them, whether they're friend or family, you just have to try and spend quality time with them.'
So after all those adventures, you'd imagine normal life would seem very humdrum for Nancy now, but nope, she settled right back into the run of things, with just a few more stories to tell her mates now. "It wasn't hard for me at all, I was looking forward to seeing the grandchildren. I missed my friends and the chats."
No doubt her friends and family will find it hard to believe what their beloved Nancy has been getting up to when they see her on screen over the coming weeks. By the sounds of it, she will hopefully inspire others coming into their twilight years that's it's not game over just because you're collecting your pension - you can still go to Vegas and just gamble it all on the Blackjack table!
50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy is on Monday's at 9pm on Sky One, and if you're not going to get that flight to Thailand like Baz suggested, you should at least sit down and watch this with your mam... then tell her you've booked her in for a skydive, for the craic.