TV presenter Baz Ashmawy has said he “still can’t picture a world” without his mother after making a new documentary focused on her death and funeral preferences.

The Ashmawy’s latest documentary ‘Baz and Nancy's Last Orders’ examines the different options available to the deceased – including coffins, funerals and wakes.

On Lunchtime Live this morning, Baz said he was concerned the experience would be tough for his mother Nancy – but soon learned things were the other way around.

“At the start of this, I was saying, I hope this isn’t really upsetting for you Mum, are you sure you’ll be OK making it?” he said.

“She kind of laughed and said, I’m going to be grand; it is you that’s going to be upset.

“She wasn’t wrong you know?”

"Painful"

He said the documentary became a journey through his mother’s life as well as her plans for death.

“I feel like, with a little part of the grieving process you have to fully engage with it. That’s why it is so painful. That is why it was so difficult to do – and thank God my mum’s in good health, we’re not doing it for any reason other than to have the conversation.

“I’m glad we had it. It was tough to make as a TV show though.”

Overwhelming

Baz said all the different things you have to consider when a loved one passes can be quite overwhelming.

“My Mum is my mentor and my best friend and if I was to lose her tomorrow and have to walk into a funeral home, I would be lost,” he said.

“Where do you even begin? But after doing this with her, I’m not. I know what she wants. I’m very clear on what she wants.

“Obviously sometimes we don’t share all of that - it is a bit personal – so it was about going through the process for me to know what she wants.”

Death

He said Nancy’s relationship with death is very different to his own.

“She is very comfortable and at peace with it, whereas I’m not,” he said. “I’m still my mum’s son and I just can’t picture a world where she wouldn’t be in it.

“But I suppose by starting this conversation with her … you know, it is an inevitable thing that is without doubt going to happen and that is just part of life.”

He said he would have loved to do something similar for his dad.

“I lost my dad years ago and I lost him very suddenly and you know, I was angry for a long time because there was a lot of stuff I wanted to say,” he said.

“There was a lot of stuff I wanted to chat about and fight about and that opportunity was just taken.

“Sometimes that’s just life. You’re not so lucky to get a heads-up about when something like that is going to happen.

“But just having the conversation opens up something else and I very glad that me and my mum went away and went on this little bit of a journey.”

You can listen back here: