The Documentary: Coffin Club
BBC World Service

A “Coffin Club” sounds like a gentlemen’s rout convened in the backstreets of Regency-era Soho. In fact, Cathy FitzGerald’s engaging documentary (14 January) was recorded in Rotorua, New Zealand, under the auspices of Katie Williams, a retired palliative care nurse and one-time midwife. Active in a branch of the University of the Third Age charged with organising some “new groups”, Ms Williams had come up with the idea of a society whose members would design their own coffins. The Rotorua Coffin Club was born.