Family snapshot: Declan interviews his Dad and his brother

But the most memorable so far has been watching him interview his own father and brother.

Big John and Wee John - as they're known to the family - are typical of Britain's pensions crisis.

Here, Declan Curry explains why:

Parents and children have been saying the same thing to each other for generations:

"I want you to do this please."

"No, I don't want to."

"Please."

"No!"

But this time there was a twist. This wasn't a parent trying to coax their reluctant offspring to do their homework or clean out their room.

I was me, trying to persuade my dad to appear on TV. And he didn't like the idea one single bit.

Family ties

It was all because of some careless talk just after Christmas.

The Election Rally team was sitting around a desk in the Breakfast newsroom. We were poring over a list of issues that voters said would matter on polling day.

We had already decided we would do one big subject a day, in a different part of the country.

And it was pretty clear that pensions would be one of our biggest themes.

Many people close to retirement are worried they may not have as much money as they expected in their old age. And the experts are warning that young people starting off their working lives are simply not saving enough for their own retirement in a generation's time.

"What we need," said our producer Jacqueline, "is a family where the father or mother is close to retirement and terrified about their pension, but their children aren't at all bothered and are not saving a single penny for their old age."

My Dad paid into a private pension..but he'll get less back than he put in. He may well have flushed that money down the toilet.

And that's when I opened my big mouth.

"That sounds just like my dad and my brother," I said.

A hush fell. Brains whirred.

"Perfect," said Jacqueline. "When can we film them?"

Which led, many days later, to an awkward phone call.

In among chit chat about my sisters, horse racing and the family dog, I popped the question: "Er Dad - how would you feel about appearing on the programme?"

Why did we want to feature any family - never mind my brood - at all? We wanted to give pensions a human face. The best way to tell the story of the pensions crisis was to show the impact it has on real lives.

The trouble with pensions

That impact has been considerable. The 4-year-long slide in share prices has cut the value of our pension savings.

Many companies have announced "black holes" in their workers' pension schemes; older workers may have to cough up more to make up the difference, while some new staff have been told they will not get a guaranteed pension when they retire.

The stock market slump has also hammered self-employed people and others paying into their own private pension funds. And the Chancellor's tax tinkering has taken billions of pounds out of our pension pots.

But just as our savings have shrunk, we actually need more money. Low interest and annuity rates mean today's pensioners are getting a much smaller payout every year from their pension pots. We're living longer, so those savings have to stretch over a longer period of time.

Yet young people are putting off their pension savings until much later, because they need every penny for higher house prices or to pay off student loans. Today's new workers will either have to save even harder in middle age, or simply accept they'll have less to get by in old age.

Meanwhile, the state pension that everyone gets has been falling behind pay packets for the last twenty years. The automatic link between state pension increases and wage hikes was broken by Lady Thatcher in her early years. Since then the pension has kept up with price rises in the shops, but has been overtaken by big council tax rises.

A tale of two generations

My father isn't facing destitution in retirement, but he may not be as comfortable as he expected.

Some of that is because of his own career choices � he went back to being a teacher in middle age, leaving him with less time than others to build up savings in the teachers' pension fund.

The big gap in his pension pot comes from the time he was self-employed as a bookie. He paid into a private pension then, but he'll get less back than he put in. He may well have flushed that money down the toilet.

With that family history, it's hardly a surprise that my brother is so reluctant to start his own pension savings. It's not just the other demands on his money - his business, the mortgage and a new baby. He simply doesn't trust the pensions industry to look after his money properly; to pay for his old age, he's investing in property instead.

Tough decisions

Fixing the pensions crisis - in the short term and the long haul - will involve hard, painful decisions.

The politicians may have to tell us to work longer or pay more. They may bring in compulsory pension savings, forcing everyone in work to join their company pension scheme.

Or there could even be extra taxes, to pay for better pensions for the low paid or those who have not worked long enough to build up a decent savings pot.

If the reaction of my brother is any guide, any of those options will be unpopular. Hardly a wonder that the Government's long-term review of pensions won't finish its report until after the election.