Splitting Heirs 1993

Within the aristocratic Bournemouth family, misfortune has shadowed generations, feeding a belief that the bloodline is cursed. The most recent heir, Tommy Butterfly Rainbow Peace Patel, was left in a restaurant as an infant in the 1960s, and by the time his parents remembered him, he had vanished.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, Tommy grows up in Southall within a large Asian/Indian family, tall and fair‑haired with blue eyes and light skin, yet awkwardly not fond of curry. From the family corner shop he commutes to the City, where he works for the Bournemouth family’s stockbroking firm, handling multimillion-pound deals and navigating the sharp edges of high finance.

Tommy is asked to host the visiting American representative of the firm, Henry Bullock, who turns out to be the son of the firm’s head, the present Duke. The two men become close friends, and their bond endures as Henry eventually ascends to the dukedom when his father dies, reshaping the power dynamics around the company and the family.

Circumstantial evidence grows that Tommy is the true Bournemouth heir. We glimpse a string of family portraits, each capturing a fragment of Tommy’s facial likeness, while his Indian mother recounts the story of his adoption, deepening the mystery of his birthright. He seeks counsel from the lawyer Raoul P. Shadgrind, who bluntly warns that Tommy has little chance of proving his claim, yet quietly plants a scheme: remove Henry from the picture and let Tommy step into the family’s lineage. Shadgrind himself engineers a variety of “accidents” in the belief that he will share in the spoils as Tommy’s partner, weaving danger with opportunity.

Love enters the plot as Tommy and Henry become entangled with the same pair of lovers: Kitty, who eventually becomes the new Duchess, and their mother, the dowager Duchess. Kitty, Catherine Zeta Jones, steps into a pivotal role as the duchess, while the older generation is represented by the dowager Duchess, Barbara Hershey, a figure whose presence underscores the family’s long history of complicating loyalties.

In the end, the truth about birthright and belonging comes to light, prompting a dramatic reevaluation of loyalties and plans. The characters drift toward a version of “happily ever after” that feels earned but remains fragile—promising contentment, then hinting at its fragility and the possibility that such peace might last “well, for a bit, at least.”