In the first programme of this two-part enquiry, John Pitman and a Man Alive team look at the problem and, next week, examine some of the answers. When grandparents get too old to look after themselves, the family must decide what to do. An old person, who may also be sick, needs much care and nursing: may become the cause of over-tiredness and bad tempers within the family. Yet the alternative, to send a much loved grandparent to an old people's home, may seem callous and cruel. For old people too, it can be a difficult time. On the one hand they don't want to be a burden on the family: on the other hand they are frightened of being 'put away' and forgotten. Do we care for our parents as well in old age as they did for us as children?