"And death shall have no dominion." This is the opening verse of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' poem And death shall have no dominion. But what does he mean by this? I think he is getting at death having no control over humanity. While his words maybe true, death is one thing that no one can escape. For some it will come soon, for others it will come far off, but no matter how long we have to wait, death will reach us all one day. That is why the subject of Curious & Unusual Deaths in this new TV series will undoubtedly prove popular.
For many people watching this series, in the back of their mind might be not knowing how we will die, and there is a chance that no matter how unlikely, everyone could die tomorrow in a multitude of ways. The cases of death could range from the easily explainable, to those deaths that require a skilled detective to investigate.
I feel at this stage of the piece, we need to introduce Professor Louis A. Bloomfield who as a physicist has been called in to investigate numerous deaths. "Many of the stories examined in Curious & Unusual Deaths are almost case studies for various academic disciplines. Sometimes that discipline is medicine, sometimes chemistry, and sometimes physics," Explains Bloomfield.
"When the writers and producers of the series realised that they needed a physicist to explain several of the deaths, they looked to the web. I've been explaining science to the public for a long time and they found me relatively quickly," adds Bloomfield.
When asked which death is most unusual in the TV series Bloomfield answered: "The fellow who got trapped in his closet when a wardrobe tipped over and wedged itself between the closet door and the opposite wall. Who knew that the wardrobe would fit the gap so perfectly? It's not exactly a design feature: perfect for wedging you in your closet." And to top that, he resourcefully broke off a pipe in the closet to use as an escape tool, only to die from exposure to the cold water from the pipe. What unbelievable bad luck!"
Bloomfield's assessment of the strangest death case he has worked on shows us how death could conceivably catch us out in a whole variety of ways. And death, just like life can catch us out and prove very unlucky. The wardrobe death case explained above shows just how inescapable death can be.
The first case in the series examined the death where a man died after trying to be healthy. Drinking carrot juice and taking vitamin A. If someone drinks too much water they could die. While this may form the basis of a healthy diet, taking anything to an extreme can lead to death. This man drank so much carrot juice and took so much vitamin A that his liver packed in and he died as a result of his binge.
But what is it that draws in viewers to watch such a programme? Or when reading the newspaper what is it that draws one to the story of the gory death in the bottom snippet of the page? I think it is a human instinct to feel better about ourselves by seeing others in a worse situation than us.
And what draws us to these programmes is that while the chances of an unlikely death are slim, death is something that will happen to everyone, so we all have the chance of being hit by a bus and could die any second. I am sorry to put it bluntly but when one is dealing with death there are very few alternatives.
The UK Premiere series of Curious & Unusual Deaths is on Crime & Investigation Network (Sky 553 & Virgin Media 237) every Friday at 9pm.