*This article contains minor spoilers for A Man on the Inside. *.
Now streaming on , A Man on the Inside stars Ted Danson as a retiree who takes up work with a private investigator following his wife’s death.
The show is inspired by a documentary about Sergio Chamy, a man who went undercover in a Chilean care home after responding to a newspaper ad.
Given that the series is based on real events and Danson’s character is modelled after a real person, viewers might be curious about what happened to the wife in both the show and in real life.
Mike Schur, the creator of the show, has previously discussed how they had to tweak some real-life details for the adaptation.
Ted Danson’s character Charles is a widower (Image: Netflix)
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One such alteration involved the role of the daughter. While Charles, Danson’s character, initially keeps his new job under wraps, Sergio’s daughter was in the know from the start.
In reality, Sergio is a father to three children and a grandfather to five, and he maintains a close relationship with his entire family.
His daughter even accompanies him to an early interview before he moves into the care home to commence his undercover assignment, expressing her worries about her father’s safety, reports .
She queries whether she’ll be able to visit him during his stay at the home, to which the private investigator assures her she can, provided all the establishment’s rules are adhered to.
To reassure her of his willingness to take on the job, Sergio confides in her during the documentary: ” You see when I go out. We live right by the shopping centre. I go to the mall, which I know by heart now because even with my eyes closed I’d know where all the stores are.”
In real life Sergio was very close with his daughter (Image: Netflix)
“So that gets boring for a while. Taking a walk, getting some sunshine looking at the trees and the pretty birds, that also gets boring. And going back to the apartment, I’m kind of growing desperate. And I find that this (the undercover investigation) has truly been something mentally liberating for me. Tiring but also liberating.”
“Because it’s like I’m beginning to feel like the person I used to be. Now I’m not thinking of your mother all the time , which was happening to me at home.”
“Everything I looked at reminded me of mom, Now I get home so exhausted, so tired , that I walk in and I just want my bed.”
He then plants a kiss on his daughter’s cheek as they both fight back tears.
While Ted Danson’s character reveals that his wife passed away a year prior to responding to the newspaper ad, in reality, Sergio had lost his wife just a few months earlier.
The show discloses that Charles’ wife was afflicted with a form of dementia, which became so severe that she was unable to visit their favourite restaurant.
The documentary does not reveal how Sergio’s wife passed away or whether she suffered from a similar illness.
Throughout the film, he is frequently seen offering solace to fellow residents grappling with health issues or missing their families, some of whom they haven’t seen for months or even years.
Last March, Sergio shared a throwback photo of himself and his wife on to celebrate her birthday.
The caption, translated, read: “Hello friends! Guess who this beautiful woman is…. it’s Elena, ‘Babe’ as I call her.”
“She is the mother of my children and my love. She was my companion for 60 plus years and for the most part still is.. because she accompanies me he is in everything I do.”
“Today is her birthday and I want to share it with you as it is a very special day for me and my family. A very big hug.”
Once his undercover mission concluded, Sergio moved back in with his daughter Dalal, her husband, and their kids.
As per World Service, Dalal expressed: “Everything I have and am is because of (my parents) so looking after my father is the least I can do.”
“We are so happy to have him here. My children love growing up with their grandfather … so I think we are the lucky ones to have him here with us”.
A Man on the Inside is streaming on .