Lay this body down

Matthew Bannister is marking twenty years of Radio 4’s Last Word by looking at how our attitudes to death, dying and the way we memorialise our dead have changed. In this episode, as our society becomes more secular, more people feel like they want to do death their own way. That’s leading to a range of new options for disposing of dead bodies, which has been accelerated by the fact that traditional burial sites – church yards – are reaching capacity. Matthew walks around the first natural burial ground in the UK where his parents-in-law are buried, hears how some crematoriums are adjusting their premises to accommodate the needs of our changing society, looks at the rise of direct cremation and visits the only facility in Europe which offers water cremation.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Production coordinator: Jesse Edwards
Studio mixer: Dyfan Rose
Editor: Glyn Tansley