The Agony of Life

The Aunts and Uncles discuss childhood - how happy they were, their parents, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Were they ever on the wrong end of the strap or wooden spoon? Do they remember the day they heard Santa Clause didn't exist and what was it like to learn that humans and animals don't live forever?

The teen years define us in so many ways and in this instalment the Aunts and Uncles talk about fitting-in at school, bullying and being bullied, and their first heroes? They also talk about the excruciating sex lessons from their parents, their body changing and the first person they felt romantic towards.

Welcome to the time where you're at your best looking, most popular and your whole life is ahead of you. In this episode, the Agony Aunts and Uncles read you the riot act on good and bad flatmates, drinking, drugs and first cars. And then they report on whether they took this time in their life for granted or worse, mistook being young for being immortal.

This is the episode where our Aunts and Uncles realise they're adults who must fulfil their career and social potential. They teach us how to stand out in job interviews and auditions, and what are good and bad manners? Also, our Aunts and Uncles give us the drum on reaching their potential and that inevitable near-death experience.

Not all of our Aunts and Uncles have children, but each of them has opinions on how they should be brought up. This episode starts with our pundits musing on whether people should require a license to breed and what annoys them most about the way some parents raise their kids. They'll then move on to the benefits of having children versus the benefits of not having them, and their greatest ever parenting successes and disasters.

Career and career-legacy is something that dominates our thinking and our Aunts and Uncles are successful enough to tell you how to have a fulfilling career, remain calm under pressure and maintain a sensible work-life balance. But what about the more difficult questions of how to keep your dignity when sacked, reach the top without screwing other people over and surviving a workplace or public scandal with as much grace as possible?

So you're thinking of winding down on the work front, but have you achieved everything you wanted to achieve in your career, what will be your legacy, and do you have regrets or is it important to regret nothing? The Aunts and Uncles lead you through this change of pace and, with sensitivity and humour, map out what an idyllic retirement might look like.

It's a subject few people want to face up to, but our Aunts and Uncles are made of sterner stuff. Here they negotiate the final frontier and, on behalf of us all, answer the big questions of life; what are they most proud of, what's their biggest disappointment, is death to be feared or embraced, what happens to us after we die, and, in a perfect world, what would they like their last words to be?