Rigor Mortis: The Complete Series 1-3 cover art

Rigor Mortis: The Complete Series 1-3

A BBC Radio 4 Black Comedy

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Rigor Mortis: The Complete Series 1-3

By: Laurence Howarth
Narrated by: Peter Davidson, Tracy-Ann Oberman
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About this listen

All 18 episodes of the sitcom set in the fascinating but misunderstood world of the pathology lab.

Meet Dr Anthony Webster and Dr Ruth Anderson, two pathologists attempting to live normal lives in an atmosphere of death, decay and seriously unpleasant smells. Anthony loves his chosen profession, finding every cadaver exciting and surprising: 'they're like Kinder eggs that have died'. Ruth, however, longs for a juicy murder mystery, instead of one routine autopsy after another.

Together, they perform post-mortems under the watchful eye of their enthusiastic head of department, Professor Donaldson, a man who's never short of a new initiative or NHS directive to implement. Also keeping the mortuary alive are hard-drinking lab assistant Gordon, no-nonsense secretary Chloe and ineffectual police sergeant Simon, who unfortunately gets queasy around corpses.

Throughout these three series, the team tackle a 'live' radio autopsy, a dearth of dead bodies and a health scare in the lab; find themselves forced to work on Christmas Day due to a department store drama, and witness a retirement, a leaving party, an overdue baby - and a death....

Scripted by Laurence Howarth, one of the lead writers on Dead Ringers and co-star of Radio 4's Laurence & Gus, this delightfully dark comedy is like Silent Witness, only slightly less ridiculous. It stars Peter Davison as Anthony, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Matilda Ziegler as Ruth and Geoffrey Whitehead as Professor Donaldson, with Tom Price as Gordon, Marianne Levy as Chloe and Gus Brown as Simon.

Dr Anthony Webster - Peter Davison

Dr Ruth Anderson - Tracy-Ann Oberman/Matilda Ziegler

Professor Donaldson - Geoffrey Whitehead

Gordon - Tom Price

Chloe - Marianne Levy

Simon - Gus Brown

David/Patient - Stephen Critchlow

Elaine/Mrs. Fitzherbert/Alison/Mrs. Wealands/Mrs. Dance - Beth Chalmers

Mrs. Renfield - Rachel Atkins

Daniel Kasper - Laurence Howarth

Margaret - Lauren Bird

Prof. Van den Hoogenband - Chris Pavlo

Mr. Reeve - Nicholas Boulton

Mrs. Anderson - Paula Wilcox

Norman - Lewis Aaltonen

Dr Betzatzoglu - Alex Lowe

Matthew - Steven Kynman

Mrs. Wantage - Felicity Montagu

Mr. Wantage - Kim Wall

Dorothy - Joanna Brookes

Interviewer/Mr. Dance - Gerard McDermott

©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Dark Humour Literature & Fiction Funny

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Critic reviews

"Wonderfully funny...the wit flashes as brightly as the scalpels." (Sunday Times)

"The sharpest, blackest and most original sitcom I've heard in years." (Observer)

All stars
Most relevant
Amusing but not disturbing. Unexpected twists, but an interesting listen. Worth the time spent listening.

Deep irreverent humour.

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I'd never heard of this series before, but boy I'm glad I took the gamble. This has amazing story lines. More dead bodied please.

Brilliant

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Loved it! Although given its subject matter and sometimes very dark humour, that's maybe in itself a bit odd, but I've listened to this more than once and will definitely listen again. Clever and witty writing and great performances. Well worth it.

Darkly Irreverent

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Funny and well acted. The script is explicit about body parts, fluid, and flippant about death, so not for the squeamish. Tracey Ann Oberman is only in the first series.

Darkish comedy

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Rigor Mortis by Laurence Howarth. This 2003 @BBCRadio4 black comedy brings the inner sanctum of the mortuary to life in the most deliciously dark & twisted way. The characters literally bring this piece to life; a definite one for the lovers of dark humour. 🎭5/5🌟 #BookReview

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A twisted and darkly hilarious book

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