Three 40-minute films, stripped across February 2012, shadow coroner Alison Thompson and the scientists who must decide how strangers died. A decomposed man is found in his flat; two young women order fatal drugs online; a cyclist kills a Spanish restaurateur; a carpenter stumbles drunk into a Tube train. The cameras stay until the final gavel.
Each case begins with a body and a blank box on the form. Pathologist Ashley Fegan-Earl dissects, clerks chase medical records, and Thompson chooses between suicide, accident or natural causes. The families wait in corridors while history is pieced together from stomach contents, soot in airways and the last text message.
Nothing here is dramatised or scored for pity; the suspense is bureaucratic. A verdict closes the file, releases the corpse and, in one instance, saves a landlord from a murder charge. After the credits the office lights stay on: another 4,000 cases are already waiting.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2012
Main Cast
Ashley Fegan-Earl as Self - Pathologist
John Mitchell as Self - Coroner's Office
Alison Thompson as Self - Pathologist
Diane Whiting as Self - Coroner's Office
