I’d always wondered if the actor was an amputee - I could never find anything to confirm it. I thought he probably was; to quote my mother, ‘I think he’d forget to limp sometimes otherwise’ (like Paul Robinson in Neighbours).
Ivy leaving the house to Nick rather than Sarah was because she was obsessed with preserving the family name and, as she put it, ‘Sarah will get married and change her name anyway’. Also, there was a question over Sarah’s paternity when she was born, so maybe Ivy never believed she was really ‘Our Brian’s kiddy’.
Ivy made the will after she was married, so maybe that’s why Don didn’t have an automatic claim on the house, but I would’ve thought he could have made a pretty strong claim that it was the marital home and that Ivy had essentially deserted him.