The body snatchers

Body snatchers at work, Old Crown Inn Penicuik (© Kim Traynor/Wikipedia)

In Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, the trade in human flesh was at its height. Surgeons studying anatomy needed corpses to practice on and the body snatchers provided them. Now people donate their bodies to science, but then dissection was seen as a fate worse than death.

Producer: Eka Morgan

Broadcast: 1996