Setting Sail

An exploration of the funeral and the grave, with fascinating and moving contributions from undertakers, gravediggers, and others. Presented by Francis Watson and first broadcast in 1985.

This documentary was produced by Malcolm Clarke and the acclaimed radio producer Piers Plowright, who died earlier this year, and is being repeated on Radio 4 to commemorate his life and work in radio. The programme is a fine example of Piers Plowright's craft - and remains an intimate and perceptive exploration of the process of dying, told from an array of perspectives.

Piers Plowright described himself as a 'radio man'. He had grown up in a home where the wireless was moved into the living room of an evening for family listening. Others have called Piers the Godfather of the British Radio Feature. In a 30-year BBC career, which began in 1968 as a trainee in English By Radio, after which he migrated via drama to documentaries, his programmes received radio's highest accolade, the Prix Italia, on three occasions. Yet he remained always modest, a practised listener, a supporter of colleagues, a composer of sound, silence and word, and - for all his erudition and love of culture - a mischievous spirit.

The guide in Highgate Cemetery was Francis Watson

Alison Waley remembered the death of her husband Arthur

Jill Tweedie considered the problem and Ivor Leverton and John Fry the business of dealing with death

The Coffin Maker was Sean Casey

The Embalmer Len Clarke

The Driver John Tyrrell

The Gravedigger Ray Rossen

The boat was rowed by Frank Sugg

The organ was played by Michael Jack

The recordings were made by Julian Walther

Setting Sail was compiled and produced by Malcolm Clarke and Piers Plowright in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

(Photo credit: Lucy Tizard)

An exploration of death from 1985 by Piers Plowright and Malcolm Clarke.