# OMG They are disecting a body on channel 4 (UK) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491 "2005-01-24T23:02:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Squire\_Of\_The\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Squire\_Of\_The\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squire_Of_The_Bob)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/1 "2005-01-24T23:02:59Z")
A corpse has just had all of his skin taken off… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/2 "2005-01-24T23:45:02Z")
Seemed to me to be a very clear, understandable programme about science. It was well-presented and easily-understandable. The most shocking think is that it’s shocking - I don’t get it. It wasn’t freaky. It was bits of bodies - so what? That’s what we all are. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/3 "2005-01-25T00:03:58Z")
Wasn’t there a show on the Beeb around twenty years ago (_You Life in their Hands_??) which showed opertions in very great details. It was wonderful, but graphic. Not for the faint of heart. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/4 "2005-01-25T00:56:35Z")
This was a repeat, right? I seem to recall reading some press about it a year or two ago. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/5 "2005-01-25T01:07:12Z")
I did a little digging around for detail, and found [this](http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14929-1343061,00.html). > [@](#): > > CHANNEL 4 is seeking a volunteer to allow the decomposition of his or her dead body to be filmed for a television special. The broadcaster, which last year screened the first televised autopsy, will break another television taboo by conducting a detailed examination of human decomposition. > > Leading scientists will supervise the experiment, with Channel 4 saying that the results of _Dust to Dust_ would help forensic pathologists in their investigations. Okay, _now_ I’m ready to bust out the ‘:eek:’. I’ve got the stomach for human dissection, but even that rabbit in _Repulsion_ squicked me out. What the…? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/6 "2005-01-25T01:20:43Z")
No it’s not a repeat, though it’s obviously a follow-up to what you’re remembering **Larry**. In that case, Dr Gunther von Hagens conducted a public autopsy at the Brick Lane gallery that was then hosting his Bodyworlds exhibition. This was filmed by Channel 4 and broadcast by them - though sneaked out at rather short notice, as I recall. The current show is a 4-part series co-presented by von Hagens, based around an autopsy conducted in Germany. Channel 4 have evidently decided that the previous programme established that, suitably couched, such material can be broadcast in this country and so this is a more elaborate version. From memory, _Your Life in Their Hands_ was always pretty graphic, but there’s still been a perception that an actual autopsy - as opposed to the fictional ones cluttering up any detective programme - is that one stage further. Though Jonathan Miller’s series _The Body in Question_ featured footage from one over 20 years ago, admittedly to some fuss at the time. [For the record, I didn’t see the earlier broadcast and forgot that tonight’s was on. I did however see Bodyworlds when it was in London.] ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/7 "2005-01-25T02:12:29Z")
It certainly sounds like an interesting programme – although I think I’ll pass on the rotting corpse series, should it ever see the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omg-they-are-disecting-a-body-on-channel-4-uk/286491/8 "2005-01-25T06:45:31Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > No it’s not a repeat, though it’s obviously a follow-up to what you’re remembering **Larry**. In that case, Dr Gunther von Hagens conducted a public autopsy at the Brick Lane gallery that was then hosting his Bodyworlds exhibition. This was filmed by Channel 4 and broadcast by them - though sneaked out at rather short notice, as I recall. > The current show is a 4-part series co-presented by von Hagens, based around an autopsy conducted in Germany. Channel 4 have evidently decided that the previous programme established that, suitably couched, such material can be broadcast in this country and so this is a more elaborate version. With the original one, they were making a specific point - that public autopsies are still completely illegal in Britain. They broadcast it live, the whole attitude of Channel 4 being “go ahead and prosecute us, if what we’re doing is really that bad”. For this series, they’ve got around it by not performing the actual autopsy in Britain, allowing them to do it more seriously and in meaningful depth.