The life of "Dr Death" - Body Worlds founder Gunther von Hagens

Gunther von Hagens, often known as Dr Death, was a German anatomist who developed a system of plastination to preserve human bodies permanently after death. His aim was to de-mystify anatomy and created the internationally successful “Body Worlds” exhibition. Former Channel 4 producer Nick Curwin, who helped Gunther broadcast a public autopsy, tells his story.

Sir Ian Wood was the billionaire Scottish businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune by transforming his Aberdeen based family fishing boat repair business into one of the oil and gas sector’s biggest engineering firms. The former Business Editor at BBC Scotland, Douglas Fraser, covered Sir Ian’s work for many years and shares his memories.

Juliet Gardiner was a social historian who pored over the diaries of ordinary people in WWII to bring a different perspective to history. She wrote books and made radio and TV programmes such as Channel 4's “The 1940s House” in which a modern family were challenged to live as they would have done during the war. Fellow social historian Simon Garfield reveals what inspired her to choose her field of study.

Dinkie Flowers was a mere 98 years-old when she wowed the audience and judges alike on the BBC TV show The Greatest Dancer. She had previously had a long and successful dancing career when in the 1940s she moved from the ballroom to the ice rink, to become England's only ice acrobat. She went on to set up her own dance school in her home town of Shoreham-by-Sea. Her friend and former pupil Louise Durrant remembers her.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister Producer: Ben Mitchell Assistant Producer: Ribika Moktan Researcher: Jesse Edwards Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Archive: BBC World Service, The Interview, 17/08/2007; BBC Two, Newsnight, 22/11/2002; Channel 4, Firefly Film, Television, The Autopsy, 20/11/2002; BBC News, Reporting Scotland, 18/11/2012; Channel 4, Wall to Wall Media, The 1940’s House, 02/01/2001; BBC Radio 4, Archive on 4, 05/09/2015; BBC, A Blitz Scrapbook, 01/01/1941; BBC Radio 4, The History of the Future, 20/02/2018; BBC Radio 4, Making History, 23/02/2016; BBC Two, Who Do You Thin You Are?, 27/12/2007; BBC Two, the Goodies, Kitten Kong, 09/04/1972; BBC Two, Springwatch, 29/05/2006; BBC News, 10/03/2021; BBC One, The Greatest Dancer, 04/01/2020