On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 1:41:10 PM UTC+1, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Her main life cover paid out surprisingly, with just a phone call - the
cheque in my name turned up yesterday. For a second much smaller policy
a different insurance company - they want a form filled in, a copy of
the will, a death certificate and names signatures from the three
executors.

The difference might not be due to the different company procedures. It is possible that the OP's name was specified on the first policy (but not the second) so no probate was required to distribute the money of the first policy.

Robert