Thought for the week: Bill Nighy and the worthwhile life

The film, which has an inoffensive 12A certificate, is based on a Japanese film of 1952. The action— what there is of it —is translated to London in the 1950’s. Nighy plays Mr. Williams, a stuffy civil servant in London County Council, who shuffles papers in the planning department.

He and his colleagues are so married to the bureaucratic process that nothing ever gets done. In particular, Williams and his subordinates seem intent on frustrating three ladies from London’s East End who were keen to have a children’s playground built amid the rubble caused by war-time bombing.

Then Williams is told by a doctor that he is suffering from a terminal illness, with only six months to live, or nine at the most. All is then changed utterly. The man who was so punctually at his desk now takes leave of absence.

The standoffish boss now treats a younger female ex-employee to a fancy meal in Fortnum and Mason’s. And the dilettante civil servant demolishes bureaucratic hurdles in

order to make that child’s playground become a reality.

At Williams’s funeral (we never learn his Christian name), his colleagues are left pondering whether their late boss knew the seriousness of his condition.

One critic observed that the film ‘may actually inspire you to live differently and, perhaps, do something of value before it’s too late’. It is a summons to us all to build a worthy legacy.

Some years ago, Dr. Kent M . Keith put together what he called the ‘Paradoxical Commandments’. I give you a sample of them, as you aim to live a worthwhile life;

People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centred – love them anyway; The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow – do good anyway; The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds – think big anyway.

People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs – fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight – build anyway. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth – give the world your best anyway.