The Bright Side of Life

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An intimate conversation between two brothers about living with Motor Neurone Disease.

The sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby talks intimately to his brother Jonathan about living with Motor Neurone Disease for which there is no known cure.

Early in 2023, the sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby fell 'flat on his face' on a pavement in central London. Soon afterwards he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease - a progressive condition for which there is no known cure. Confronting the reality of this, Nicholas decided he wanted to share his thoughts and feelings about living with a terminal illness and asked his brother, Jonathan to record these, joking "I shall have to be called Dwindleby now".

Over the following six months, the brothers sat and talked at Nicholas's kitchen table in Devon. They recorded their conversations to the sound of a ticking clock and occasional interventions from the family kitten. Nicholas describes how he shared the news with the family; the strange feeling of knowing your 'sell by date'; and yet the benefits of being able to say 'goodbye' properly. He also speaks about his urge to have some control over the manner and timing of his own death, feeling himself to be almost a 'ghost person', semi-removed from the world.

He talks to Jonathan about his vision of heaven - in which he has no belief - but imagines it would be crowded with interesting people like his beloved Bach, Handel and Shakespeare. 'I'd be in good company!' he says. He also explores the thought that the real afterlife is the legacy you leave for others - in his case, the feelings that have inspired his work as an artist.

The Bright Side of Life: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - The Bright Side of Life, Episode 2

As his Motor Neurone Disease progresses, Nicholas Dimbleby talks to his brother Jonathan about how it feels to face the end of life and his belief in a person’s right to die.

Early in 2023, the sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby fell ‘flat on his face’ on a pavement in central London. Soon afterwards he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease: a progressive condition for which there is no known cure. Confronting the reality of this, Nicholas decided he wanted to share his thoughts and feelings about living with a terminal illness and asked his brother, Jonathan to record these, joking “I shall have to be called Dwindleby now”.

Over the following six months, the brothers sat and talked at Nicholas’s kitchen table in Devon. They recorded their conversations to the sound of a ticking clock and occasional interventions from the family kitten. Nicholas describes how he shared the news with the family; the strange feeling of knowing your ‘sell by date’; and yet the benefits of being able to say ‘goodbye’ properly. He also speaks about his urge to have some control over the manner and timing of his own death, feeling himself to be almost a ‘ghost person’, semi-removed from the world.

The second episode starts in the High Dependency Unit at hospital, where Nicholas is recovering from his operation to have a feeding tube, or PEG fitted. Nicholas’s voice is affected in the same way as his other facial muscles, which means communicating is exhausting; it becomes increasingly hard to articulate his thoughts. Nevertheless, Nicholas tries to rely on his ‘blithe spirit’ to keep living ‘in the moment’ as much as possible, relishing time spent with family around the dinner table and sitting in his beautiful garden watching the house martins. He says he has 37 medicines to take and countless appointments with various clinicians. He relies on the power of metaphor, and he is sustained by hugs from those he loves as life becomes more challenging by the day.  

This pair of programmes form an intimate and moving record of how one man grapples with what it is like to live with a fatal disease, to face that approaching terminus, to seek control over how he dies – while reflecting on how hopes to be remembered by those he will leave behind.

Presented by Nicholas and Jonathan Dimbleby, with thanks to the family.

Produced by Catherine Carr and Jo Rowntree

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

Details of help and support with MND are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

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