however, his plans to develop a major theme park at woburn failed to come to fruition. he suffered a severe stroke on 21 february 1988 when he was aged just 48, which he was not expected to survive, but did. the stroke led him to pursue a more relaxed lifestyle and to be much less of a workaholic during his later years. with his wife, the former henrietta joan tiarks, he appeared in the bbc series "country house", detailing daily life at woburn abbey, the bedfords' ancestral home in bedfordshire, england. he succeeded his father to the dukedom on 25 october 2002, but died in 2003 after another stroke in the tavistock intensive care unit, national hospital for neurology and neurosurgery, where he had been a major patron. this made him the shortest-lived duke of bedford. he and his wife had already handed over control of woburn abbey to his eldest son andrew, lord howland, in 2001.