Ricky Gervais' TV series about a grieving widower, After Life, is one of the most popular British comedies of the past decade. I was agog to watch it when it was first screened, not long after my wife, Sue, died of cancer five years ago. Within minutes, however, I was shouting at the TV, 'No, no, you're wrong. Grief is nothing like that.'
When Gervais' bereavement counsellor asks him what he most wants from therapy, he says he wants 'to not feel sad'. Yet the reality is I occasionally want to feel the sadness.