The Other Side

Johnnie Walker delves into one of the biggest fears and taboos in human culture - death. With personal stories and expert analysis from different faith traditions, the British Humanist Association, doctors and spiritualists, Johnnie explores what happens when we die and looks into the possibility of life after death.

This documentary will explore what different faith traditions have to say about what happens when we die and discover how belief and non-belief affect what we do, how we cope and how we face our own mortality. Visiting the hospice where his own father died, Johnnie learns about the recognised phenomenon of End of Life Experience, where the dying often see reassuring visions of dead relatives as their own death approaches.

The programme also explores contemporary society's changing attitudes to the dying process with a look at designer coffins, firework dispersal of ashes and the rising popularity of Spiritualist churches, where people try to make contact with the dead.